KARACHI, Oct 18: The city government has dropped its plan to conduct aerial fumigation spray as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has refused to allow the flying of the plane at low height at the time of sunrise.

An official of the health department said the city government had approached the CAA and the plant production department of the federal government to provide a special plane for aerial spray in Karachi to control the fast growth of mosquitoes, which were the main cause of viral hemorrhagic fever.

He said that the vector control wing of the health department had launched a fumigation drive in different parts of the metropolis from Oct 1.

The department had provided machines, vans and insecticide to the town administrations to conduct fumigation spray, however, it did not yield the desired results, he said.

Earlier, the city government had launched fumigation campaigns thrice during the past six months through the method but it could not check the spread of mosquitoes.

Therefore, the official said, the city government had planned to use a plane for aerial insecticide spray in collaboration with the CAA, which could have been effective in controlling the increasing number of mosquitoes in the city.

This, he said, could have helped control the VHF, particularly the dengue virus, as well.

The official said the plant production department had agreed to provide its plane, however, the CAA had allowed the city government to use air space only at high altitude as flying at low height was not possible because of high-rise buildings.

The CAA had also imposed the condition that the plane would fly during noon timings as air space was not available at dawn due to arrival of international flights, he said.

Due to the reason, he said, the city government had to drop the scheduled drive as the Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes carrying dengue virus appeared at dawn and dusk only. “Fumigation spray at other timings would not be effective," the official said.

It was also necessary that the plane should fly at low height to make effective the insecticide spray, he said.

He said talks were under way with the CAA for aerial spray on marshy seaside area, where mangroves had become an ideal breeding place of mosquitoes.

He said the city government had decided to continue its drive. The city government planned to send sanitary workers with fumigation spray and machines to the narrow lanes in kutchi abadis where vehicles could not enter, he said.—Online