LAHORE, Oct 17: The City District Government Lahore on Tuesday launched a fumigation campaign to eliminate mosquitoes and dismantle their hatcheries as pre-emptive measure against the viral haemorrhage fever (VHF).

Agronomists, however, say the campaign may not achieve the desired results as the CDGL health facilities and preventive measures wing is not fulfilling the requirements to make the chemical effective for the purpose.

“The CDGL officials are neither diluting the chemical being used for the purpose according to the standards nor are they applying its sufficient quantity on the area specified in the books,” said Baqir Niazi who did his master’s in agronomy from the Punjab University.

The CDGL was using the dilution technique recommended for indoor application, said the agronomist who runs his own pesticide business in a southern Punjab city and is in Lahore to materialise a deal.

“The CDGL officials are diluting a chemical called Deltamethrin in water to make the solution for fumigation over open drains and filthy ponds. Manufactured by a UAE company, the chemical would remain effective for around three months if diluted either in kerosene oil or diesel for outdoor application. Otherwise, it would become ineffective within 48 hours or so,” he claimed.

“Two methods are used to apply Deltamethrin outdoors. In thermal fogging treatment one litre of the chemical is diluted in 140 litres of kerosene oil or diesel and five litres of the solution is applied per hectare. The cold fogging treatment requires dilution of one litre of Deltamethrin in 14 litres of kerosene oil or diesel for application of the 0.5 litre solution per hectare,” said Kamran Zareef, a classmate of Mr Niazi.

The CDGL had constituted 10 squads to carry out fumigation in the 150 union councils of the city in 15 days.