CHENNAI: With the intermittent showers continuing for past two weeks, the city’s main waterways and storm water drains have turned out to be the happy breeding sites for mosquitoes, leading to a sudden spurt of complaints of the menace across the metropolis. Though residents enjoyed a relatively mosquito-free nights till a few weeks ago, the menace has started to raise its ugly head once again after the recent rains from the southwest monsoon, said Rajendran, a resident of MKB Nagar.According to civic body sources, its public grievance help line (1913) has also recorded a sharp increase in mosquito-related complaints from residents across the city.Though water stagnation at a storm water drain construction site near Ganeshapuram subway has become the source of mosquito breeding in our locality, we can’t blame the Chennai Corporation as they have sped up their work to finish it off before the onset of the northeast monsoon, said Kailasam, a pavement dweller near the area. “The whole area would be flooded during northwest monsoon due to the absence of a proper drain system,” he said.While complaints of sudden spurt in mosquitoes are coming from different parts of the city, including Mylapore, Adyar, Nesapakkam, Virugambakkam and T Nagar, the situation in North Chennai, especially for those living close to clogged canals and drains near MKB Nagar, Kodungaiyur, RK Nagar and Perambur, is nothing less of terrible. “Mosquitoes give us sleepless nights,” said Mani, a local resident of Kodungaiyur, not to speak of the diseases the insects bring along.When contacted, Corporation authorities told City Express that an intensive drive to quell mosquito breeding has already been launched. Besides emphasising the role of the public in vector control as crucial, the civic body officials also asked the public to check for stagnant water in tanks, air conditioner ducts, utensils, coconut shells and abandoned tyres to prevent breeding. Rain water collected in these places provides a happy breeding ground for the anopheles stephensi, the variety of mosquito that spreads malaria. The other variety, the culex, which sings and stings and is more of nuisance value than a disease-causing one, breeds even in dirty stagnant water.A mass cleaning of city is already in the pipeline as the Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa announced in the State Assembly.
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