As per the national guidelines of LGD, committees will be formed at the national, municipal corporation, municipality and union levels. The committee will meet once a month and will also implement all the activities for the prevention of mosquito-borne diseases.
The LDG said that the National Committee has held five meetings on this so far and taken many decisions, but they were not that successful.
There are dengue prevention committees in eight districts, but no committees have been formed in most of the municipalities and unions in those districts. Apart from this, the district committees also do not function properly.
Apart from Dhaka, Barishal had the highest number of deaths due to dengue. Barishal deputy commissioner Shahidul Islam said that although a dengue prevention committee has been formed in the district, no committee has been formed at the union level. He told Prohom Alo that an order has been given to form a committee at the union level and it will be possible to form all the committees this month.
Dengue prevention activities are limited to miking at the upazila level. “In the upazila council meeting, instructions have been given to conduct miking in all the unions to raise awareness, and we are doing this, nothing else,” Ashrafuzzaman, president of Baharpasha Union Parishad of Bakerganj, Barishal, told Prothom Alo. No dengue prevention committee has been formed at the union level yet in Patuakhali district.
There is no dengue prevention committee at the union level in Lakshmipur. A committee has been formed in Laxmipur Municipality, one of the four municipalities in the district. Lakshmipur Municipality Mayor Mozammel Hidar Masoom Bhuiyan is the chairman of the committee. The committee does not hold any meetings, but the mayor claimed that they spray insecticides and conduct awareness campaigns.
This correspondent met Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Ariful Haq at the LGD office. He told Prothom Alo that they implement whatever instructions they get from the Centre, but no one monitors it. Giving an example, he said that many Municipal Corporation employees do not even know how much water needs to be mixed in mosquito repellent.