Private fumigation business booms over dengue threat

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

* Private firms, individuals fumigating people’s homes after govt’s failure to start process on time

* Failure to fumigate on time irks citizens, who say they have no choice but to get houses fumigated from private individuals

* According to previous records 628 people were suffering from dengue fever, number has now increased to 745

By Afnan Khan

LAHORE: Private companies and individuals have jumped into the fumigation business to exploit the government’s failure to conduct fumigation in time across the city, after the mosquitoes carrying the dengue virus sent hundreds of people into hospitals, with a number of them in a critical condition.

Individuals carrying spray pumps and semi-professional equipment for the facility are even going door to door in some areas to market their products, demanding exuberant prices to get the job done.

Citizens said that they had been compelled to fumigate their place privately, because government officials had failed to carry out their duties, despite having millions of rupees at their disposal. Adding that they could not leave their families and children at the mercy of the government, which had already failed to protect them from the dengue fever.

One of the individuals, Rana Mehmood, carrying out the fumigation, with the name Rana Spray Corporation told Daily Times that his company was not doing anything illegal by providing the service to the public at reasonable cost, but they were actually helping the citizens stay dengue free by filling the gap left behind by the government.

“The insecticides they were using in the sprays are far better in quality than those provided by the government and it is not only effective against mosquitoes, but also kills flies and other small insects,” he said.

Mehmood added that they normally had been charging Rs 2,000 for the service in a 10 marla house and 1,000 more if it was a double storey building.

Mehmood was of the view that he was neither over charging nor exploiting the citizens in any way, because his rates were quite reasonable in the current situation when there had been an immense demand for fumigation. Besides, the prices of the insecticides being used in the process were sky high, he added.

However, Rehana Malik, a resident of Sabzazar told Daily Times that citizens had been facing a “lose-lose” situation, as the corrupt government officials had already looted millions of rupees, which was actually public money paid by poor citizens, and now they had left the citizens at the mercy of private spray companies.

Malik Akmal, a resident of Gulberg told Daily Times that he had already gotten his house and its façade fumigated after waiting for the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) teams to come and do their job for many weeks.

He said that there had still been a flaw in fumigating houses individually, because mosquitoes present on stagnant water still managed to survive and could affect those who could not afford to pay for the spray.

Akmal was of the view that fumigation by CDGL was likely to be more effective in dengue and malaria prevention because the large-scale activity was bound to destroy the breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

He said that this was the worst example of mismanagement on the part of the government and it had completely exposed the Punjab government’s claims about good governance and the chief ministers claims about being very active to the demands of the public.

“All this has been happening under the reign of a CM who claims to remain awake all night for the public,” Akmal added.

Separately, dengue fever patients kept ‘thronging’ different hospitals across the city for treatment, stating that the public had been facing the brunt of the Punjab government’s failure to fumigate in time and keep a check on their supposedly corrupt officials.

According to the previous record provided by the government there were 628 people suffering from dengue fever, but that number had now increased to 745 dengue fever patients across the province.

At least 131 people had been brought to the hospitals in Lahore between Saturday and Sunday and the number was likely to grow because of the government’s failure to fumigate on time.

According to an official spokesperson, there are 41 dengue patients in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, 5 in Mayo Hospital, 9 in Jinnah Hospital, 3 in Children’s Hospital, 36 in city district government dispensaries, 2 in Services Hospital, 1 in Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) and others.

Also, CDGL and Punjab Health Department had started a fumigation campaign in around 700 schools and 150 union councils of the city. Lahore District Coordination Officer (DCO) Ahad Khan Cheema will be supervising the fumigation campaign.

He told Daily Times that the government had no problem with citizens privately fumigating their houses and he believed that it was better for both government and the citizens.