A year since last year’s alarming dengue outbreak, ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes are present across Calcutta.
Cars seized by police are lying idle outside police stations with water accumulating in dents and depressions on them. Parks and green verges still have coconut shells and teacups strewn all across and water has accumulated in many of these.
A short drive through the city on Tuesday afternoon showed that many of the promises made by the authorities to combat vector-borne diseases after an outbreak of dengue last year have not been fulfilled.
Risk from cars
The space outside a number of police stations has cars lying idle for months. Many of the cars had met with accidents and their exteriors have developed dents and depressions, where water has stared accumulating with the onset of the monsoon.
On Tuesday, Metro found cars with broken windshield and multiple depressions lying idle outside at least three police stations. There were nearly 20 such cars outside Ballygunge police station and two in front of Bhowanipore police station.
Outside Topsia police station, seized motorbikes and goods vehicles were lying with plastic sheets wrapped over them. Water had accumulated in the depressions on the plastic sheets.
In a letter to the city’s police commissioner Vineet Goyal in November, mayor Firhad Hakim had requested him “to direct all the police stations to remove the condemned cars in a bid to control mosquito breeding”.
Eggs of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the primary transmitter of the dengue virus, can turn into adults even if it gets a spoon of water that remains undisturbed for at least seven days.
Hakim told this newspaper on Wednesday that he will again write to police commissioner. “I had requested the police last year to take steps so that cars did not turn into mosquito breeding grounds. I will again write to the police commissioner,” Hakim said.
This newspaper called Santosh Pandey, joint commissioner of police, headquarters, thrice on Wednesday afternoon and evening but the calls went unanswered.
Solid waste
Scores of coconut shells with water accumulated inside them and plastic bags are stacked along the southern boundary of Vivekananda Park on Southern Avenue. One of the cricket coaching centres in the park operates from a portion that is close to the spot where the coconut shells and plastic bags were dumped.
The park is visited by hundreds of children enrolled in the coaching centres, morning walkers and others.
Thermocol containers with water accumulated inside were seen at multiple spots along Southern Avenue.
Accumulated solid waste was also found near Charu Market police station and on a railway property next to the railway overbridge near Charu Market.
A CMC official said any heap of garbage could have containers like coconut shells and discarded cups where water will accumulate after rain. This water can then turn into breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
The website of the World Health Organisation (WHO) mentions that the “dengue mosquito lays its eggs in water-filled containers inside the house and surrounding areas of dwellings (this includes non-used bottles, containers, discarded waste, tyres etc… which hold water)”.
Lack of coordination
Multiple government agencies in the city are custodians of various public spaces. The lack of coordination among them results in poor solid waste cleaning and allows mosquito-breeding sources to thrive, officials said.
The Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) is the custodian of Vivekananda Park, the police are supposed to look after seized cars, the CMC is responsible for cleaning the green verges and the railways are supposed to clean the waste accumulating beside the railway tracks in Charu Market.
Mayor Hakim called a meeting of all departments and agencies, including departments of the Union government, last month. The meeting was held so that all departments and agencies worked together to combat dengue. But the accumulation of waste suggests lack of a coordinated effort.
“I will ensure that Vivekananda Park is cleaned soon,” Hakim, who is also CMDA chairman, said on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Eastern Railway said: “If the cleaning of that place is our responsibility, we will definitely do so.”
People’s participation
It is not rare to find Calcuttans throwing teacups into a green verge after finishing off the tea. Metro found multiple such green verges where teacups had been thrown and water had accumulated in them.
The WHO’s website says “community participation is the key to dengue prevention”.
A CMC official said they were conducting regular awareness campaigns on steps that are necessary to prevent mosquito breeding.