Mosquito homes: Tyre godowns and shops in Naulakha fumigated

Inspectors say old tyres are top breeding sites for mosquitoes.

LAHORE:

City government and Environment Protection Department (EPD) officials fumigated two huge tyre godowns at Naulakha Bazaar on Wednesday as they continued a drive to remove the most likely mosquito breeding sites in the city.

EPD inspectors, accompanied by EPD Secretary Sajjad Saleem Hotiana, District Coordination Officer Ahad Cheema, Commissioner Jawad Malik and two MPAs, visited the market for the third day in a row on Wednesday. Officials say that water resting inside old tyres is the biggest source of dengue mosquito larvae in Lahore.

The inspectors also sealed two tyre shops on Circular Road on Wednesday after identifying larvae in tyres kept outside.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had directed on Monday that imported tyres businesses in the city should be directed to fumigate the go downs where they stored these tyres.

He also directed officials concerned to ensure that no used tyres were kept at open spaces. He said the policy would be implemented in all major cities at risk of spread of dengue virus.

“We have surveyed hospitals, shops, parks and petrol pumps. The most mosquitoes and larvae were found in tyres containing water, abandoned or ‘stored’ outside shops,” said Younas Zahid, the deputy district officer for environment. He is supervising nine teams searching for mosquito breeding sites.

On Tuesday, the inspectors fumigated around 500 tyre shops in Naulakha Bazaar and emptied tyres of stagnant rainwater, Zahid said.

The shop owners rejected the EPD’s claim that tyres were the biggest breeding sites. “Not a single person in the entire market has been sick,” said Shahid Pervez, the market’s president. There are a lot of mosquitoes around but not the dengue mosquito, he said, adding that the shopkeepers had sprayed their stores with insecticide themselves as well as through government officials. Shopkeeper Iqbal said most stores opened around 10am and closed at 6pm when the dengue mosquito was less active.

The Naulakha station house officer said that some half of his men had taken sick leaves in recent weeks because of dengue. He believed the nearby market was the source of their infection.

“We have spotted at least three to five large tyres with fresh water rich in mosquito larvae outside each shop,” said EPD inspector Javed Iqbal. The shops, about a marla each, are clustered together and the shopkeepers leave tyres outside when there is no space inside, he said.

Officials said that shops had been sprayed and old tyres filled with water removed from bus stops in Badami Bagh, Wahdat Road, Faisal Town and Bilal Gunj.

Iqbal said water collected in tyres and in the shade in crowded markets was the perfect home for mosquito larvae. “The shopkeepers are lazy and do not drain the water,” he said. About 90 per cent of the used tyres in markets, according to a dealer in Naulakha, are from the army. The rest come from car work shops, petrol pumps and shops selling new tyres, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2011.