Hyderabad: Sunday has been declared ‘No Dengue Day’ by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corpora-tion. The earlier ‘Friday as Dry Day’ confused people. A random survey by DC found that people were unaware of it.
GHMC will begin with its employees, who have been asked to follow the rules in their homes.
Employees have to take 10 minutes at 10 am and dry water containers, pots and flowerpot trays, and remove coconut shel-ls to ensure no there is fresh water stagnation.
Each employee must not restrict it to his/her home but go around the neighbourhood and community and educate people on why a ‘No Dengue Day’ must be observed.
Drying is important as even 100 ml of water can allow the hatching of 150 to 200 female aedes aegypti mosquito eggs.
“We are undertaking awareness programmes in 50 schools and 10 residential areas everyday. But as September and October will lead to mosquito proliferation, community participation is important to control the daytime mosquitoes,” Chief GHMC entomologist Ram Babu said. “Fresh water containers are kept inside the house and not outside. Hence people have to be sensitised to not store too much water and ensure that they dry the container completely before filling it.”
With Sunday being a holiday, this 10-minute job is expected to help in bringing down the mosquito population in the city.
