Throughout the year the Coimbatore Corporation is supposed to carry out fogging exercise to destroy mosquitoes. More so, during monsoon season when water stagnation and resultant mosquito breeding is high.
But this seems to have turned quite an irregular activity, if Coimbatore Corporation sources’ statements are anything to go by.
The Corporation uses pyrethrin for fogging inside buildings and malathion in open spaces. But, of late, it has been using pyrethrin for fogging both indoors and outdoors.
A Corporation official, on condition of anonymity, says that the current practise is that the Corporation takes malathion from the office of the Deputy Director of Health Services on need basis, that is when dengue or high number of fever cases is reported.
The Corporation buys pyrethrin in two instalments of 3,000 litres a year, spending about ₹ 30 lakh a year. The health wing of the Corporation then distributes the pesticide at five litres a month a ward.
The health wing’s field staff – domestic breeding checkers or conservancy staff – mix pyrethrin and diesel at 1:9 ratio for fogging using hand-held devices.
A domestic breeding checker says that the quantity of pesticide the Corporation gives is inadequate. The actual required quantity is thrice that of what the Corporation gives each ward.
With the five litres the Corporation gives a month, the worker says, domestic breeding checkers are unable to cover all the areas. They run out of pyrethrin by the first week or at the maximum by the 10th of every month and therefore it appears that the Corporation is not carrying out fogging exercise.
The Corporation sources say fogging malathion takes place rarely because the civic body not only does not have stock of the pesticide but the vehicles it uses for the purpose are not in running condition.
A health wing officer says that the vehicles used for fogging are not in running condition in north and east zones and rarely run in the other three zones.
But despite the irregularities in fogging, the Coimbatore Corporation has recorded only a dengue positive case in the last two months and the number of cases since January has been insignificant.
A senior health wing official says that though the number of dengue positive cases has been fewer, the Corporation is not taking things lightly. It has deployed domestic breeding checkers who visit every household in their assigned area to destroy or remove mosquito breeding sources.