Syed S Irfan has been having sleepless nights in Hyderabad. He sits guarding his children all night armed with an electric bat, “I went to sleep this morning at 7:30 am. Never seen this many mosquitoes. This year there seem to be more mosquitoes than usual,” the Azeempura suburb resident said.
Residents of several localities in Hyderabad fear a repeat of last year's dengue wave. The Anti Larva Units of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had stepped up their efforts as part of COVID-19 response, but the mosquitoes remain rampant.
In 2019, Telangana witnessed 13,417 dengue cases, the highest ever recorded in the state and 4,592 dengue cases reported in 2018. The cases in Hyderabad last year peaked mid-October, which health officials term as “dengue season.” But many are urging civic authorities to take action to prevent a wave of dengue cases during the summer this year as the state is under lockdown over COVID-19.
”They have converted lakes in the city into sewerage tanks, all the city sewers are connected to these lakes and the interlinking drains are choked and rarely cleaned,” says Chilupuri Veera Chary, chairman of Welltech Foundation, an advocacy group for awareness on mosquito-borne diseases in Hyderabad. The stagnant waters make perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes, he adds.
Mohammad Janna, residing on the banks of Shah Hatim Talab near the Golconda Fort, says the stagnant lake has been covered with water hyacinth for the whole year. “It becomes impossible to stand outside our home at night. The mosquitoes sit on the water hyacinth all day and move out in swarms at night.”
The GHMC had set up a water hyacinth removal machine at the Sha Hatim lake, but it has not seen much activity since early 2019. GHMC contractor unions say the hyacinth removal work stopped due to payment delays. GHMC contracts have also not been paid for the past three months of work.
“One reason for the delay is that contract labourers do not want the work of getting into the lakes. Another issue is the paucity of funds. The contractors were asking for more and they delayed the work. The water hyacinth thus grew unchecked and now is a safe haven for mosquitoes,” says Tirumala Srinivasan B, president, United Federation of Resident Welfare Associations.
“A couple of days ago, the municipality started the work to remove hyacinth at Kapra alone. At Ramakrishnapuram lake, they emptied the lake to kill the water hyacinth, now surrounding areas are facing water shortage. The groundwater level went down by 200 feet after they drained the lake. People now have to rebore by spending Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh.” he adds.
G Niranjan, Hyderabad District Malaria Officer (DMO), says his team along with GHMC officials until two months ago were focused on localities that had witnessed a high number of dengue cases in 2019. But since the COVID-19 pandemic, all manpower has been diverted to fighting COVID-19. “At the moment, this is our most pressing issue.”
However, on Tuesday, a 50-year-old woman from Adilabad died in Hyderabad, a suspected dengue case. The New Indian Express reported that the family had to run from pillar to post to get her treated, as hospitals were refusing treatment over suspicion of COVID-19.
The Telangana government only accepts a case as dengue-positive if the samples were tested using IgM-Elisa test. Those confirmed positive from other tests and treatment are not added to the state’s numbers. The same goes for those who could have died due to dengue but were confirmed positive through other tests.
An official with the entomology department of GHMC told TNM that the focus should be more on undertaking anti-larva operations as opposed to fogging. “A door-to-door anti-larvae operation has to be undertaken, fogging only gives a brief respite. But since the COVID-19 outbreak, there has been a break in the anti-larva operations,” said an assistant entomologist.