Dengue has turned into an epidemic across the country due to irregularities and corruption at every stage of the two Dhaka civic authorities, the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) said yesterday. The disease has claimed more than 200 lives so far this year. The TIB made this observation while revealing a report, "Challenges and Ways to Control Aedes Mosquito in Dhaka", at a press conference held at the TIB conference room in the capital’s Dhanmandi area.

TIB executive director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) had incurred a 40 per cent financial loss in the 2018–19 fiscal year in buying mosquito pesticides at a high price. He also said there was lack of coordination between the two city corporations in combating the Aedes mosquitoes. The DSCC bought pesticides from the Dockyard and Engineering Works Limited, which had been blacklisted by the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).

At least 40 per cent of the money of the DSCC was embezzled in the process. According to the report, the DNCC bought the same pesticide at Tk. 217 from the Limit Agroproducts Ltd, while the South bought it at Tk. 378 per litre from Dockyard and Engineering Works, incurring a loss of Tk. 161 per litre.

“The two city corporations have no laboratories and entomologists of their own to test the effectiveness of pesticides,” added the report.

TIB researchers M Zulkarnain and Mostafa Kamal said, during the report presentation, that the authorities concerned did not take adequate steps to control the Aedes mosquito. Measures were taken on an ad hoc basis and most of the steps were a mere show, they added.

The report said environmental, biological, chemical and mechanical management was needed to control dengue, but the two city corporations relied on chemical control only. “According to the health department, at least 41 government and private hospitals in the capital were getting dengue patients, but the number of private hospital in the capital was around 600. Besides, the health department did not take into account dengue patients being treated at home,” it stated.

The report further said that owing to lack of coordination among the organisations involved in the mosquito eradication programme, dengue had spread across the country. After that civic bodies started imposing fines on ordinary people by holding them responsible.

 In addition, on average, there are only five mosquito repellent workers in a ward, which is inadequate.   Depending on the size of the area, distribution of drill workers is not sufficient. Moreover, there was no sufficient staff training, the report said.

The report also said that since the Aedes mosquito survey concentrated only on Dhaka, no advance warning could be given to districts outside Dhaka.

Half of the 652 fogger machines of the North City Corporation were damaged in 2018. At present, some new machines have been purchased and some repaired to cope with emergency situations. But 40–45 machines are still out of order.

On the other hand, out of the 940 DSCC machines, 428 were damaged. Spare parts of most of those machines were not available in Bangladesh, added the report.

It also added that pesticides and fogger machines of the two city corporations were sold in the market without being used.