JEDDAH: To kill mosquitoes carrying the dengue fever, the Jeddah municipality recently sprayed pesticides at 1,150 locations where rain and floodwaters gathered.
“The locations consisted of 296 building construction sites in various parts of Jeddah, 64 housing units, 25 courtyards, seven parks and 758 open areas,” said Dr. Hani ibn Muhammad Abu Ras, deputy mayor for services.
The recent figure, however, does not tally with what the municipality announced on Dec. 8 that it had sprayed more than 1,300 floodwater sites feared to be breeding grounds for dengue mosquitoes.
Abu Ras called for further efforts to seal off all locations where mosquitoes could possibly breed. “The main purpose of the strategy of the municipality is to reduce as much as possible the mosquito-breeding spots and thus reduce the possibility of people getting dengue fever,” he said.
Mahmoud ibn Muhammad Wali Kinsara, assistant undersecretary for services and the supervisor of the crisis management department at the Jeddah municipality, said the “Aedes Aegypti” mosquito which causes dengue fever lives off pools of water in streets, swamps, garbage areas, buildings under construction, abandoned swimming pools, water tanks and stagnant water, and under air conditions units and old discarded tires.
He added that the municipality’s insect lab conducts research and assesses how mosquitoes can be stopped.
In another development, Marie Al-Maghrabi, chief of the municipality’s Thuwal branch, said the municipality has dried up all rain and flood puddles in the streets of Thuwal by pumping water into empty water trucks.
