The increase in dengue cases in Coimbatore Corporation area in the recent past has forced the officials to take a look at their water supply situation.
According to sources, the spurt in dengue and the places where the dengue cases were reported in the city seemed to suggest a pattern. A cursory look at the places indicated that those were areas where the water supply was more than once in four or five days, necessitating residents to store water. And such storage of water served as the ideal breeding ground for the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spread dengue.
The Corporation was told that Vellalore, Vadavalli, Kuniamuthur, Thadagam Road, Sikhrawarpet, Ponnaiah Rajapuram, Perur Road, Tatabad, Gandhi Park, Ramanathapuram, Red Fields and Singanallur were some of the dengue red-alert areas.
In these areas the Corporation officials found that more number of people lived a small area and also that the water supply cycle was long, forcing residents to store water. In the former, it was easy for more people to get infected and in the latter, the storage containers helped mosquitoes breed faster.
Armed with the data, the Corporation attempted to reduce the supply cycle so as to dissuade people from storing water that was more than necessary and also carry out source-reduction exercises. It asked people to keep closed the water containers, dump wastes that could store water and also use mosquito nets.
After it initiated the measures, the Corporation recorded a decrease in the cases. On Wednesday, the Corporation recorded only one case. It also found that the relation between the water supply cycle and dengue no longer existed and that there were other reasons behind the cases being reported. The Corporation supplies Siruvani, Pilloor, Aliyar and Bhavani waters to the 100 wards in the city and in cycles that varies from once in four days to once in 10 days.
