Swarms of mosquitoes are laying siege to New Town to the northeast of Kolkata every day, sending residents scurrying indoors and forcing them to keep their windows and doors shut at all times. The situation is such that regular adda sessions have shifted indoors from the corner tea stalls. Most residents are avoiding taking walks in parks.
Several residents said apart from mosquitoes breeding in the Bagjola and Kestopur canals, stagnant puddles of water in construction sites across New Town have given rise to breeding conditions for mosquitoes.
Public health experts have repeatedly warned that stagnant pools of water must be drained out as the dengue-causing Aedes Aegypti mosquito can breed in even a coin sized blob of water. Residents of New Town’s AB, AD, AI, AL, CD, CE and DC blocks have been complaining about mosquitoes since the beginning of the year.
Subhajit Ganguly, a resident of Action Area II, said he had to shut all the doors and windows of his house by 3.30pm every day. “Even then, mosquitoes manage to fly in through the gaps in exhaust fan vents in the kitchen and toilet. We cannot survive without mosquito nets and repellents,” he said.
The Telegraph drove around New Town and spotted several under construction buildings that had open wells or pools of stagnant water. In AE Block, a large pool of stagnant water had formed from the run-off of an under construction building.
In the same area, a rainwater drain was clogged with dumped plastic glasses and packets. Mosquitoes were spotted flying over the drain. An official of the New Town Kolkata Development Authority said that they were spraying larvicide regularly and had conducted awareness programmes asking people not to let pools of water form.
“We have asked builders and contractors to ensure their labourers don’t keep wells open or let pools form. We are spraying larvicide at construction sites,” said the official.
The NKDA has laid nets over portions of the Kestopur and Bagjola canals in at least six places as part of a pilot project to see whether it contains the mosquito menace.