Disease threat looms after floodwater recedes
KOTA : With the receding of the floodwater from the low-lying areas of the Kota city, threat of a disease outbreak looms large, heath officials said.
The medical a nd heal t h department has started door-todoor surveys for checking a disease outbreak.
In post-monsoon season, Kota remains at high risk for di s e a s e s , s uch a s de ngue, malaria and scrub typhus, so flood could aggravate the situation, people said.
“Water has e nt e r e d t he houses and damaged the clothes and other household items. We also came into contact with the polluted floodwater, so there is a possibility of a disease outbreak,” said Raju (known by his first name), a resident of Nehru colony in Kota.
Another resident, Ghanshyam Kumar of Nayapura bus stand road, said, “The health department will have to work tirelessly to check diseases now as Kota witnesses seasonal diseases in post-monsoon season.”
Although t he s anitation teams of the Kota municipal corporation are cleaning the sludge and filth from more than two dozen flood-hit residential areas of the coaching city, the health department officials are taking steps to prevent outbreak of diseases.
Chief Medical and Health officer, Kota, Dr Bhupendra Singh Tanwar said that the medical and health department has formed 282 teams, which have so far visited more than 10000 houses in the flood-hit zone of Kota.
“T h e t e a ms h a v e b e e n instructed to expedite their work to prevent disease outbreak after the flood,” he said.
Tanwar said mosquito larvae has b e e n d e s t r o y e d a t 5 4 3 houses and medicine has been poured in the water reservoirs to prevent them from for becoming breeding grounds of the larvae. “Also focal spray at 2114 places and fogging at over 100 places have been done in floodhit areas so far,” he said.
Heavy r a i nf a l l flooded swathes of the state in Kota, Jhalawar, Baran and Bundi districts. It forced the release of excess water from the Kota barrage and flooded low-lying areas along the banks of the Chambal.