THE start of the rainy season has been declared which means TT has to be prepared to combat the rain and the mosquitoes that come with it.
While the Port of Spain City Corporation has been on a drive to have people clean up their properties, including empty lots of land, and the health ministry had imposed fines on those who were found guilty of leaving all types of debris and vessels that would harbour the deadly Aedes aegypti mosquito – the vector for dengue, ChikV, Zika and yellow fever, Port of Spain mayor Joel Martinez admitted that this was a perennial problem they always had to tackle. “So far we have had a fairly decent response from the residents. We have a number of people who have cleared their lots. I have not gotten back reports from our administrative team as to how many lots are being cleared at this time, but before the rainy season starts we would be looking at it more seriously. We have a mosquito infestation that comes with the rainy season and then we have to depend on the health ministry to provide treatment to deal with the situation,” Martinez told reporters after Tuesday’s statutory meeting at City Hall, Knox Street, PoS.