As monsoon begins in Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is hastening the process of destroying mosquito breeding sites across government and private buildings in the city.
Of the 72,835 sites that were inspected, officials found and destroyed 96 containers with the malaria-causing Anopheles mosquitoes along with 306 containers of Aedes Aegypti (dengue) mosquitos.
The civic body has also carried out fogging exercises in 3,751 buildings across the city to destroy such sites.
Insecticide Officer, Dr Rajan Naringrekar said, “Last year since the entire city was under strict lockdown, our insecticide team faced difficulty in getting access into construction sites and buildings. We could not inspect premises for mosquito breeding. That had led to the rise in malaria cases last year as water that accumulated in construction sites could not be treated.”
Naringrekar added that construction sites have been directed this year to treat stagnant water with the appropriate chemicals to avoid mosquito breeding.
Read - Mumbai Receives 94% Of Its Average June Rain
Officials learned a tough lesson in 2020 when Mumbai’s malaria cases shot up beyond 11,000 whereas the number stood at 8,868 in 2019. The steep rise in cases was attributed to the uncontrolled breeding of anopheles mosquitoes in open areas across the city.
However, dengue cases fell to around 3,000 in 2020, down from 14,907 in 2019, as the coronavirus lockdown meant that most people were confined to their homes.
Further, the BMC is poisoning rat burrows to reduce the rat population and consequently curb the spread of leptospirosis. The civic body reportedly poisoned around 3,055 rats in June.
The civic body is urging citizens with wounds or cuts to avoid walking through waterlogged streets after a heavy rain spell. If any individual comes in contact with street water, the BMC recommends taking preventive medication as a precautionary measure.
Also read - IMD Predicts Heavy Rainfall; Orange Alert For Mumbai Today
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