Effective insecticide import sees no headway

Even with an alarming number of dengue cases, Dhaka city corporations are yet to initiate any process to import insecticides for combating the mosquito menace.

Although the High Court repeatedly asked the Dhaka mayors to use effective chemical repellants immediately, the import process is not likely to begin before the upcoming Eid-ul-Adha - sparing the mosquito-borne diseases one more month to turn deadlier.    

The High Court on July 25 asked the two city authorities about how long it would take to bring in new pesticides. Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) could not specify the date.     

On Tuesday in a fresh order, the HC directed the city corporations to inform it the specific import date by Thursday.  

DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam on Monday said his office will import new pesticides and DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon on Tuesday said he would purchase new chemicals soon.       

Reality sharply contrasts with the promises as their respective offices are yet to initiate any process in this regard.

Meantime, the city corporation officials say their insecticide storage is ‘sufficient’, which would ‘cover’ this monsoon.

Chief Store and Purchase Officer of DSCC Md Nuruzzaman claimed that the present pesticides are ‘good’. “Those really work as per the reports of the Plant Protection Wing’s recent tests,” Nuruzzaman told The Business Standard.   

Echoing him, DNCC Chief Health Officer Brigadier General Mominur Rahman Mamun said their insecticides are also ‘effective’.

However, according to a recent iccrd,b research — mosquitos in Dhaka are fully resistant to current insecticides being used by the two cities.

Funded by the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers at the icddr,b collected Aedes Aegypti and Culex mosquito eggs from different areas in Dhaka, and found that the mosquitoes have developed near complete resistance against some of the insecticides the city corporations have been using for the past 10 years.