What comes to mind when you think of schools and colleges being shut for month together? A thick layer of dust on benches, chairs, spiderwebs in corners and musty-smelling classrooms. But that’s not all. Roofs of a few school buildings in the city have turned into huge breeding spaces for mosquitoes.
Educational institutions across the State are set to reopen on September 1 after a gap of over five months — they were opened briefly in February and shut down from March 24 as signs of the COVID-19 pandemic second wave started being observed. Ahead of the reopening this time round, directions were issued to clean the schools.
Government staff who visited schools for the sanitation drive found leaves and sundry garbage blocking water outlets on the building rooftops, leading to rainwater stagnation. Since it has been raining regularly over the past week or so, the rooftops could not dry. The presence of algae indicated that the water had not been cleared for long.
Officials of the State Health department have earlier said that even 30 to 40 ml water stagnant in a container for a few weeks is enough for mosquitoes to breed. The sight of pools of water across the rooftop and tiny mosquitoes sent a chill down the officials’ spine. Aedes species of mosquito, which carry dengue virus, breeds in stagnant fresh water.
While apartments and other residential buildings surround the school building, no one has, so far, raised a complaint about the issue.
Additional Director at National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (Telangana), G. Amar Singh Naik has appealed to people to take out 10 minutes every week to clear stagnant water in and around home. If anyone is detected with dengue, malaria, chikungunya, they can dial ‘104’. Upon receiving this information, Health teams will conduct surveillance activity.
During inspection of residential buildings and offices recently, health staff also found water accumulated in plates placed under flower pots, in empty alcohol bottles thrown on the terrace or around home, in empty coconut shells and broken plastic containers among other things.
