Kolkata: Garbage dumped on city roads raises concern of possible dengue outbreak

Oct 28, 2022

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], October 28 : Garbage littered on roads in Kolkata has raised the concern about a possible dengue outbreak in the city.

On Friday, garbage was found littered open on New Town and Salt Lake streets.
As a result, the citizens are keeping the doors and windows of their houses closed in disgust over the rotten stench of garbage and in fear of dengue-causing mosquitoes entering their houses.

According to locals, despite repeated pleas by the government and doctors to keep the neighbourhood clean to fight dengue, these places are littered with garbage.
A citizen said, "Every citizen would like that the city should be clean and there should be minimum diseases. There is not only a hospital but also a residential complex nearby. There should be an aggressive cleanliness drive and no garbage on the road."

"Why would there be garbage on the road that too in the open where more water accumulation will increase chances of dengue? Along with garbage management, we have to pay attention to this and the administration should take this step. Every city should be clean. The administration should look at these things more aggressively. I want to say this as a citizen of Kolkata," he added.
Speaking to ANI, Debashis Sen, Chairman, New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) & Managing Director, WBHIDCO Ltd said, "There is no water contamination here. We have inspected it. But yes, there is some garbage on the roads. We have informed our men about it. By tomorrow they will remove all the garbage and clean up the roads. There are no reports of dengue in the city at present. New Town is one of the cleanest places in the city."

"We are very much careful about the dengue outbreak in our city. For this, we monitor through drones and release guppy fish in water bodies at regular intervals," he added.