From councillors to mayor: Dhaka North to fight dengue on three levels

Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam has said the city corporation will launch a three-tier plan to control dengue in Dhaka.

The first tier will consist of a task force committee headed by a councillor in each ward, he said while distributing an awareness cartoon book titled "Mosquito Bite is Harmful" among students in various schools in the capital on Wednesday.

"This committee will visit their respective areas to identify the source of Aedes larvae, take steps to destroy the larvae, list which houses have dengue patients, and enter the data of the mosquito control programme in the command centre server," the mayor said.

"The second tier will consist of a rapid action team headed by regional executive officers and executive magistrates. Based on the information provided by the task force committee, this team will go to the spots and take legal action," he added.

According to Atiqul Islam, the third tier will be a monitoring team led by the mayor centrally.

The mayor said the city corporation has been working on mosquito control since four months before the start of the monsoon season and the activities have been intensified during the monsoon.

He also said an agreement has already been signed with Jahangirnagar University for laboratory research on mosquitoes. The effectiveness of various insecticides in controlling mosquito-borne diseases including dengue and mosquito density, mosquito species will be tested in this lab.

Mayor Atiqul Islam initiated the distribution of the cartoon book at Mohammadpur Preparatory School and College before extending it to four other schools: Lalmatia Girls High School, Lalmatia Primary School, Lalmatia Society School and College, and Jamila Ainul Anand High School, Shyamoli.

The book, distributed to students from class one to class five, aimed to educate children on the harmful effects of mosquito bites and ways to protect themselves from the disease.

The mayor also awarded prizes to five students from each class from the schools for their performance in drawing.

Addressing the students, teachers, and parents, he said that the city corporation wants to make children aware of the harmful effects of mosquito bites.

The mayor urged the students to spread awareness about dengue control in their homes and localities.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, on the 17th day of the ongoing month-long special mosquito eradication campaign in Dhaka North, around Tk3.60 lakh fine was collected in 11 cases due to the detection of Aedes larvae. So far, Dhaka North has collected a fine of Tk1.32 crore in 192 cases.