Even before the monsoon arrived in the city, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) authorities have chalked out a detailed public awareness campaign to fight mosquito-borne diseases like dengue and malaria.
“July and August record the highest rainfall in Kolkata every year and heavy monsoon gives possible rise to breeding of mosquito larvae that in course might cause spread of diseases like dengue, malaria and chikungunya. Our fight is to prevent such rise through mass awareness and hence the initiative,” Atin Ghosh, member, mayor-in-council (health), told.
Mass awareness programme
KMC’s mass awareness campaign against spread of dengue and malaria would include dos and don’ts to prevent breeding of mosquito larvae across the city.
Civic officials plan an extensive round-the-year awareness campaign and have also scheduled food and water safety campaign in the festive months from October to December.
“During these three months, Hindus, Muslims and Christians have festivals and with the celebrations seeing additional footfalls, they create an opportunity for selling food, coloured water, and soft drinks, among others. We only want to sensitise the masses about the food safety norms, which needs to be followed while purchasing food products during the festivities,” a senior doctor with KMC’s health department said.
Food safety norms
KMC will also put up over 4,000 billboards on the streets of Kolkata as part of the awareness campaign on food safety norms. According to sources, KMC will be spending over lakh to make consumers and sellers aware about the food safety norms in context of the recent Maggi controversy.
“Solid waste management workers collecting garbage from every doorstep will reach out with handouts in four different languages – English, Hindi, Bengali and Urdu,” the MMiC added. KMC and the Consumer Affairs department are jointly launching three tableaus that will roam around the city from Monday with messages on awareness against food and water borne diseases.
According to the awareness calendar, January to March is scheduled for awareness on tuberculosis, which is still a killer disease in Kolkata.
