Mumbai Monsoon 2023: BMC begins anti-mosquito drive to reduce risk of dengue, malaria

Mumbai: As part of its drive against monsoon diseases, the BMC has directed all the 24 administrative wards to take all the preventive measures, including destruction of mosquito breeding spots. The civic body will also hold a meeting to review preventive measures taken by other government offices.

Ahead of the monsoon, the BMC's insecticide department conducts mass drives to destroy breeding spots across the city. The initiative is aimed at reducing the proliferation of dengue and malaria-spreading mosquitoes before the onset of the rainy season. These drives are crucial because they help in limiting mosquito population during rains as water gets accumulated at various locations and breeding of mosquitoes thrive, said sources in the civic body.

Steps taken by BMC

In a fortnight's drive, the civic staff visits the chronic spot, looks for breeding in containers, odd articles, planters, etc and sprays tamifoss, which is also safe in drinking water. The civic authority has also instructed all the ward officials to spray disinfectants at construction sites with the help of volunteers from non-governmental organisations. The team from the insecticides department will also visit the housing societies and slums to check if their water storage tanks are covered and there is no mosquito breeding. 

The BMC will be conducting a meeting of the mosquito abatement committee with the Central and State public works departments, railways and several other governmental agencies to check the preventive measures taken by them in their respective areas. 

During the pre-monsoon drive last year, the insecticide department destroyed 9,300 breeding spots infested with malaria larvae and 65,099 spots of dengue larvae. According to the official data, 721 cases were also filed in court against societies that failed to prevent mosquito breeding. A whopping Rs12,15,800 lakh was collected in fines from such societies.