Public health: Anti-dengue walk held in Faisalabad

FAISALABAD:

The Health Department organised a dengue awareness walk on Wednesday.

The walk was led by DCO Noorul Amin Mengal. The participants walked from Zila Council Chowk to Circular Road.

They were carrying banners and placards encouraging citizens top adopt precautionary measures against dengue fever.  Talking to newsmen, the DCO said the government had directed district administrations to conduct comprehensive campaigns to control a dengue outbreak during the monsoon. He said rains provided a conducive habitat for breeding of dengue-carrier mosquito. He said all relevant departments had been put on high alert.

He said the dengue menace could be curbed with active participation of citizens.

“The dengue mosquito does not discriminate between the rich and the poor,” he said. He urged people to keep their neighbourhoods clean.

“If stagnant water is found, officials should be notified so that it can be removed,” he said. He said an anti-dengue day would be observed on Thursday (today). He said district offices would be cleaned and public awareness campaign would be launched.

Monsoon preparations

The Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) has formed a comprehensive plane to drain rain water from main roads, said WASA Vice Chairman Irfan Manan said on Wednesday. He said all disposal stations of Faisalabad had been provided 1,000 KVA generators to drain water round-the-clock. He said generators had been installed in collaboration with Japanese company JAKA at 21 pumping stations. Others, he said, would be added soon.

He said this was done to ensure the pumping stations stayed operational during load shedding hours. He said drains would be de-silted and their banks would be strengthened. He said five water and sanitation agencies of the province had met in Lahore to discuss installation of water meters.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2015.