Swarming mosquitoes put BMC’s deep cleaning drive to test

Mumbai: A single worry plagues Mumbaikars at sunset every day — to keep a swarm of mosquitoes from invading their homes, commercial spaces and cars. Windows are shut, mosquito bats charged and liquidators switched on, and yet the pests manage to make their way in.
Officials from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have said the months of January and February are the breeding season for culex mosquitoes, popularly known as nuisance mosquitoes. The problem is exacerbated, they said, due to waste thrown in open nallahs in the suburbs, illegal sewage discharge and stagnant water in storm water drains (SWDs). These failings birth mosquito breeding sites.
While in keeping with chief minister Eknath Shinde’s decree, the city is deep-cleaned (which includes fogging, removal of garbage and illegal banners, cleaning public toilets and removing abandoned vehicles) once a week, the on-ground situation paints a picture of apathy.
BMC’s road concretisation work where SWDs are being rebuilt is creating stagnant water upstream, encouraging the culex mosquitoes to breed. Officials said while this breed of mosquitoes does not transfer any disease in Mumbai, “the possibility of it happening in the future cannot be ruled out”.
In Dharavi the menace is so heavy that residents are compelled to use incense sticks, mosquito repellent incense sticks, burn jute bags and wood fire to stay outdoors, said Ataul Khan, an activist. “To keep mosquitoes away, security guards sitting outside buildings are resorting to measures that will produce smoke,” he said.
Khan’s recent interaction with the pest control officer brought to light that all the fogging by BMC is inadequate to beat the pests. “The officer said cleanliness needs to be maintained in the vicinity to avoid mosquitoes. When I pointed out that it was BMC’s task, the officer said the responsibility was with a different department and they cannot help it,” said Khan.
He added that except once when CM visited Dharavi to oversee deep cleaning, their area has not seen any results from the drive.
On the other hand, civic officials are overwhelmed with citizens’ complaints about mosquito menace in every ward. An official explained how an open nallah has made the problem acute in BKC and Kherwadi. “Our officials are working on holidays in the BKC area as mega events take place here frequently,” he said.
Another ward official said, “We do not have enough staff to service all spots every day. The road concretisation work is all across the city. Before the road is concretised, the storm water drains are rebuilt and in order to do that, the BMC contractors will build a bund and hold the water. This water also has sewage water and it leading to mosquito menace.”
While various departments of BMC continue to indulge in blame game, Advocate Trivankumar Karnani, founder of Mumbai North Central District Forum, said citizens are suffering due to lack of coordination and mismanagement within.
“A civic body with all resources at hand is saying it is unable to tackle this because of contractors? This is dereliction of duty, and these officials should be criminally prosecuted for endangering our lives,” he said, adding the on-going deep cleaning drive is nothing but an eye wash.
“These mosquitoes breed in stagnant water and dirty places. Had the deep cleaning been effective, every corner of city wouldn’t be filled with mosquitoes,” he said.
To this, civic officials responded: “All our nallahs have slums around them and a lot of waste is dumped here. The nallahs are not flowing in this season and the garbage thrown creates an island around their periphery. This makes it a very good breeding ground for culex mosquitoes which can lay 200-400 eggs at once,” said an official.