Environment Dept: Inspectors conduct 40,000 dengue checks

City govt should get tyre-shredder to dispose of confiscated tyres, says secy.

LAHORE:

The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has inspected 39,702 sites in all 36 districts of the Punjab over the last five months and issued 10,627 notices, sealed 259 places, and lodged 218 FIRs against owners of tyre shops, warehouse, scrapyards and construction sites for not taking measures to prevent the spread of dengue, according to a press release.

On the directions of Environment Protection Department (EPD) Secretary Anwar Rasheed, special anti-dengue squads have inspected 6,076 sites in Lahore and 33,626 in the rest of the province to check for the presence of dengue mosquito larvae.

The Punjab government has assigned the EPD Dengue Directorate the task of identifying and eliminating dengue-breeding sites in tyres shops, junkyards, nurseries and construction sites.

The EPD has set up nine anti-dengue squads under the supervision of EPD Environmental Health Dengue Control Director Tauqueer Qureshi in Lahore and 42 squads in other districts. The squads have inspected 2,990 tyre shops, 1,833 scrapyards, 671 nurseries and 582 construction sites in Lahore. They have issued 532 notices and lodged 95 FIRs for leaving tyres, plastic scrap and plant pots in the open without cover. Some 87 premises have been sealed.

A total of 18,822 tyre shops/warehouses, 6,059 junkyards, 3,737 nurseries and 5,008 construction sites have been inspected in other districts. The EPD has issued 10,095 notices, sealed 171 sites and lodged 123 FIRs outside of Lahore.

After inspections, 7,556 places have been declared to have taken satisfactory measures to prevent the spread of dengue.

New standard operating procedures have been drawn up for tyre shops and junkyards and the EPD teams have met with business associations to raise awareness of the new procedures. Most tyre shops now store tyres inside their shops, said the press release from the EPD.

Qureshi said that he had personally inspected several sites in the city and monitored the inspections conducted by the anti-dengue squads through a mobile phone app that runs on Android software. The app allows inspectors to update images and details of violations as they conduct site visits.

EPD Secretary Rasheed said that the government was using all the resources at its disposal to combat the dengue virus. He said that the EPD’s Dengue Directorate had been performing efficiently. EPA Director General Farooq Hameed Sheikh had been monitoring the anti-dengue squads and would continue to do so until the disease was eradicated.

Rasheed said that the EPD had recommended various strategies to the Punjab government to improve tyre storage, as used tyres left out in the open in the rain served as ideal breeding sites for mosquitoes. He said that he had visited a number of tyre-shredding units and recommended that the city government also get one to destroy the tyres it confiscates. The secretary said that all government departments should work together to eradicate the disease. Citizens should also aid in the effort, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2013.