SHAS­TRI BOODAN

GML Cor­re­spon­dent

The Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion has be­gun a 7-day mos­qui­to erad­i­ca­tion ex­er­cise in a bid to re­duce the mos­qui­to in­fes­ta­tion in the cen­tral bor­ough.

Ch­agua­nas May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed told Guardian Me­dia that in 2017, the com­mu­ni­ties of Fe­lic­i­ty, Char­lieville and Pierre Road suf­fered from a se­vere mos­qui­to in­fes­ta­tion.  He re­ports that the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion is much worse, with a se­ri­ous rise in dengue cas­es.

May­or Mo­hammed says the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion al­so is look­ing at clean­ing up aban­doned lots, with the as­sis­tance of three re­cent­ly hired pub­lic health eval­u­a­tors (per elec­toral dis­trict).

“They are cur­rent­ly deal­ing with emp­ty lots through­out the Cor­po­ra­tion—emp­ty lots, ceme­ter­ies, and recre­ation grounds or pub­lic spaces where you would see over­grown bush­es,” the May­or says.

The Ch­agua­nas May­or says the ini­tia­tive is be­ing fund­ed by mem­bers of the Bor­ough’s busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, in­clud­ing him­self.

“We can’t de­pend on the gov­ern­ment no more,” the Ch­agua­nas May­or stat­ed.  “Crime is out of con­trol.  Dengue is out of con­trol … I don’t know which one is out-trump­ing which one, at this point in time.”

“Just as we set up crime watch groups with­in our elec­toral dis­tricts and with­in our com­mu­ni­ties,” May­or Mo­hammed ex­plained, “we’re go­ing to do this [dengue fight­ing] ini­tia­tive to take back con­trol as well.”

The Ch­agua­nas May­or com­mend­ed burgess­es in the cen­tral bor­ough for their ef­forts to keep their sur­round­ings clean to help re­duce the num­ber of pos­si­ble breed­ing spaces for dis­ease-car­ry­ing mos­qui­toes.