Vic Falls wages war against mosquitoes

Mosquito on green leaf

Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
VICTORIA Falls Municipality on Wednesday started aerial outdoor spraying of mosquitoes around homes and hotels among other structures.

Council’s Housing and Community Services director Mr Lot Siatimbula said the fogging and larviciding method, which involves shooting a cloud or chemical in to the air, was being used.

Fogging is the application of an insecticide to an area to reduce the proliferation of adult mosquito populations.

Larviciding is the action taken to destroy mosquito larvae in stagnant water before larvae develops into adult mosquitoes that may be a public health threat.

Mr Siatimbula, who is the acting Town Clerk, told councillors in a full council meeting on Tuesday evening that the process will be undertaken over three days, between 6PM and 8PM.

“Council will undertake fogging from Wednesday 30 November to December 2. Residents are advised to close windows to their premises between 6PM and 8PM to allow for the process to go on,” said Mr Siatimbula.

Council used social media to spread messages to residents.

In an interview, Mr Siatimbula said they are starting with wards 9 and 10 which are transit zones for mosquitoes as they are near sewer ponds.

“We are starting around ward 9 and 10 which are bound by sewer ponds,” he said adding that they will be using a fogging machine mounted on a pick-up truck to shoot the chemical in the form of fog or mist into the air.

The outdoor spraying comes at a time when council is doing a mop up exercise of the indoor mosquito spraying which started more than two months ago.

Mr Siatimbula said in some areas especially in wards 9, 10, 11and 12, there was no co-operation from residents on the programme.

The council’s mosquito spraying programme has been met with mixed feelings with some residents saying it was not effective as they were still having challenges with the insects even after spraying.

Yesterday some residents took to social media to decampaign the process saying they will not allow their surroundings to be sprayed.

Council intensified mosquito spraying after hotel operators complained that the insects were causing havoc and scaring away tourists from the country’s prime destination.

The council intends to cover 90 percent of all properties in the indoor residual spraying programme.

Last year 65 percent of properties were covered.

Some residents last year blocked council teams from spraying their houses claiming the chemical-Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) that the municipality was using for indoor residual spraying wasn’t effective as mosquito’s wreaked havoc soon after the exercise.

This year council is using a chemical called organophosphate, Mr Siatimbula said.

— @ncubeleon.

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