KARACHI: Fumigation department idle since devolution
By S. Raza Hassan
KARACHI, Dec 18: The fumigation and vector control department has been ineffective since the transformation of defunct KMC into the city district government. The long-neglected department receives attention only in times of crisis when there are fears of epidemic outbreak in the city. Otherwise, its staff and spray vehicles are rarely seen working in the city.
The ageing fleet of 12 vehicles of insecticide spray are proving inadequate to cover the entire city within a short span of time.
The fogging machines mounted vehicles (pickup trucks) nine of which acquired during the period of defunct DMC’s of East and Central are unaccountable, as some officers reportedly had brought these vehicles into their use removing the mounted fogging machines.
District Officer Fumigation and Vector Control, Hammad Siddiqui, citing shortcoming of his department told Dawn that annual budget allocated for his department was Rs4.5 million which was reduced to Rs3.6 million after deductions of the City Council. However, he pointed out that due to the present fears of viral epidemic in the city, the budget had been increased to Rs6.5 million by the City Nazim.
Admitting that present fleet of 12 vehicles is not at all enough for the metropolis, he suggested at least 36 for the 18 towns of the city. Regarding the staff, he said that his department had a total strength of 250 which was again insufficient as many of them had retired.
Sindh Secretary Health Prof Noshad Shaikh said that malaria control programme was going on at a slow pace with local funding in Hyderabad after a roll back of the foreign funding.
In Karachi District, the malaria control programme was being run by the city government. However, on ground the programme seemed to be limited only to paper work, health experts pointed out.
The traditional methods of malaria and vector control employed during the defunct KMC had been done away under the present setup of the city district government. Basically, the storm water drains, which mostly remain chocked due to filth serve as a main source of breeding grounds for mosquitoes in the city. In most parts of the city, such breeding grounds remain unattended.
Measures such as de-grassing, channelizing of water courses, sprinkling of refuse oil and use of Fenthion granules in the drains were no longer being carried out, officials of the city government said.
According to the experts, spray of insecticides should be carried out at least twice or thrice annually in order to keep a check and control on the spread of such aliments.
These sprays are recommended with the onset of winter season, as the spray particles do not have lasting effect during monsoon season.
The defunct districts East and Central had purchased four and five fogging machine-mounted Suzuki pickup trucks respectively, but during the process of devolution, officials reportedly dismantled the fogging machines.
Feeling the shortcoming, the city government has floated a tender for purchase of 100 fogging machines. It is expected that within 15 days these machines would be procured.
According to the city government, the anti-malaria department had launched the spray drive from Nov 1 in all towns of the city. With the fears of imminent outbreak of hemorrhagic fever, the spray drive was being re-launched, the city government claimed. Residents of various towns complained that they did not see any spray vehicle in their areas during the recent fumigation drive.
The offices of the city government at Civic Centre too had not been subjected to insecticide spray, several employees of the district government complained.
