The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation is going to request the state irrigation department to flush out stagnant water from the Kestopur, Eastern Drainage and Bagjola canals to reduce the mosquito population in areas close to them.
The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation has 41 wards comprising areas like Salt Lake, Mahishbathan, Sukantanagar, Baguiati, Kestopur, parts of Rajarhat Gopalpur and Chinar Park under it.
The three canals pass either along or cut across several places where the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation is in charge of civic services.
Many of these places are recording a surge in the number of dengue cases every week.
In Salt Lake, blocks like ED, EE, DL, IC and KB-KC, which are close to the Eastern Drainage channel, have reported many dengue and malaria cases.
Blocks along Kestopur canal from where fresh dengue cases are being reported almost every day include AE, BE, CE, SA and BH, AH and AG.
Outside Salt Lake, infection clusters are regularly being reported from Chinar Park, Kaikhali, Arjunpur and Teghoria.
A senior health department official of the civic body said they will ask the state irrigation department to release water from the Hooghly into these three canals regularly.
“In several spots, the water now is stagnant or moving very slowly. A dredging drive began last year but it is important to keep water flowing in these canals so they don’t turn into mosquito breeding grounds. Now, in several places with stagnant water mosquitoes can be seen buzzing,” said the official.
A senior official of the state irrigation department said they release water from the Chitpore Lockgate to flow through Kestopur canal. The water then enters the Bagjola canal after crossing the sluice gate near Nayapatti.
“However, since the construction of Metro pillars is on near the Eastern Drainage canal in Chingrighata, we have to see how we can go about it without hindering construction work,” the official said.
Several Salt Lake residents who stay in blocks along the Kestopur canal said that they were facing an “onslaught of mosquitoes”.
“It’s like living under a constant siege. We are taking every precaution we can, from keeping mosquito nets up to using mosquito repellents all through the day. The
civic body must do something about it soon as nearly every other house in our block is affected by fever,” said Saikat Majumder a resident of SA Block.
Krishna Chakraborty, mayor of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, said: “We will send a letter to the irrigation department requesting them to release water into the three canals so the water doesn’t remain stagnant. All three canals have been dredged but there still remain several pockets of stagnant water.”