The civic body mandarins of Ranchi claim to be putting up an offensive against the swarms of pests that arise every monsoon to inflict deadly diseases upon the denizens of the city.
Work has already begun in this direction, assured Dr Ajay Kumar Manjhi, Medical Officer of Health with Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC). “The city has been divided into four zones and required equipment and pesticides have been allotted to the teams working across the city. Work is going on,” he said.
Around 13 supervisors have been appointed in these four zones to direct the workforce of labourers conducting cleanliness and disinfecting drives. Around 120 vehicles have been included in the corpus of resources to maintain a clean Ranchi this monsoon. Ward councillors have been asked to monitor work going on in their respective wards.
“These teams have been instructed to spread chemicals around the city to check breeding of disease carrying insects and vermin. Specific focus is on checking growth of mosquitoes as they pose a greater problem during monsoon. Cleaners have been ordered to sprinkle bleaching powder wherever they find stagnant water to prevent mosquitoes from breeding,” Manjhi said.
The new drainage system laid down in the city might also prove to be a great help in checking spread of vector-borne diseases. “Although confirming the effectiveness of the new drains now will be a bit too early, they might be useful in effectively channelling excess water during heavy rains. If these drains can do that then they will be very helpful in cutting down mosquito breeding by taking water stagnation out of the picture,” said Manjhi.
The new drains constructed by Road Construction Department seems like a useful addition to the drainage system of the city, but they proved to be somewhat ineffective when rain came down heavy on Thursday, with most roads of Ranchi transforming into water bodies for a span of 30 to 45 minutes.
This will not be a contributing factor in the dispersion of vector-borne diseases as the water was not stagnant for long and was channelled off by the drains within half an hour, claimed Manjhi.
The health officials of Ranchi districts too seem prepared to check the spread of vector-borne diseases. “The usual safeguards have been practised this year too. Medicated mosquito nets have been distributed in areas vulnerable to malaria and dengue. Diagnostic centres for these diseases are up and running at both Sadar Hospital and Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS). Awareness programmes in rural and urban areas have been continuously conducted too,” stated Ranchi Civil Surgeon Akhilesh Kumar Choudhary.