Hyderabad: Mosquito-prone areas geotagged

Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation will geotag areas with a high risk of mosquito breeding to minimise and eventually eradicate the pest. Geotagging would help the corporation keep a special focus to control the mosquito menace during the monsoon.

The corporation has identified as many as 650 areas including Madhapur, Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Ramnagar, Musheerabad, Secunderabad, East Marredpally, West Marredpally, Uppal, Ramanthapur and others as being vulnerable to mosquitoes.

“We have drafted 642 teams to pinpoint the areas where mosquitoes grow. We have set a target of 1.4 lakh houses per team daily after the geo tagging them,” a senior GHMC official said.

He said the teams would check overhead tanks, sumps and water storage containers and treat them with the larvicide temephos. Around 3,500 houses under GHMC limits have been identified as mosquito breeding spots. “Larvicides will be used in such houses along with fogging,” said a GHMC official. The civic body has allocated 10 vehicle-mounted fogging machines that will cover 150 localities every day.

“Apart from dialling the GHMC helpline numbers, people can directly call the entomology department of the civic body to report about mosquito menace. They can also directly call officials at the zonal level,” he said.

Each female mosquito produces an estimated 1,000 eggs. From January 1 to June 1 last year, 157 cases of malaria and dengue were reported in the city, the highest in five years.