For the past two weeks, a ‘dengue demon’ has been doing the rounds in the city. The demon has been walking around streets, parks and attending school assemblies asking people to remove old pots, bottles, tyres, coconut shells and any other items that could hold freshwater.
The ‘demons’ by Chennai Corporation employees C. Somasundaram, Assistant Engineer, and S. Arul, Sanitary Inspector of Ambattur zone, is to spread dengue awareness.
“So far, we have been distributing pamphlets and trying to make residents understand that dengue-causing mosquitoes breed in freshwater. But we wanted to do something different and we came up with this idea. These vectors do not fly long distances but remain in the area where they are born. So, in effect, if mosquitoes breed in your backyard, they remain there,” said Mr. Somasundaram.
A sanitary worker, dressed up as a demon carrying pots and bottles, goes around public places. Camps have also been organised at Marina and Elliots beaches; one was organised even during the recent cricket match at the M.A. Chidambaram stadium.
Meanwhile, another Corporation employee, conservancy inspector R.P. Sandhiyaa of ward 136, has made a script asking residents to segregate garbage and hand them over to employees. “My job is to oversee conservancy work. I wanted residents to segregate garbage so I wrote a script telling them garbage could draw flies and mosquitoes and lead to diseases, including dengue,” she said.
Camps have also been organised at Marina and Elliots beaches. One was organised during the recent cricket match
