Corruption in controlling mosquito menace
News pours in every day about more and more people suffering from dengue, particularly in the capital city Dhaka. According to the health department’s health emergency operation centre and control room, in the first 12 days of July this year, 1,643 dengue patients were admitted to various government and private hospitals. Unofficial records put this number even higher.
According to the government’s Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), from April till the present this year, so far 11 persons have died of dengue. Experts feel dengue will spread further.
At this critical juncture when the mosquito-borne disease dengue is spreading rapidly, news reports reveal that the anti-mosquito insecticide being used by both Dhaka North and South city corporations is ineffective. The mosquitoes are neither affected nor killed by this insecticide. Despite this, neither of the city corporations is taking any initiative to change the pesticide.
A report published in Prothom Alo on Thursday stated that Dhaka North city corporation is no longer using its Limit Liquid Insecticide as they have only now come to realise, after all this time, that it has not passed scientific testing. Why was this not tested before? Why has Limit Agro Product Limited, the supplier of this insecticide, not been blacklisted?
Ironically, Dhaka South City Corporation continues using this insecticide. They said that they had checked the insecticide with IEDCR and the plant protection wing of the agricultural ministry before using it. There is definitely something wrong somewhere.
Listening to the sufferings of the city’s residents is enough to indicate the ineffectiveness of the insecticide. In many localities of the city, mosquitoes have become an intolerable menace. If the insecticide had been effective, the people wouldn’t have suffered so much and dengue would not have spread so drastically. Had the city corporations remained accountable to the people, this situation would not have arisen. Mosquitoes must be brought under control before the dengue turns into an epidemic.
