Excavation ground tagged dengue mosquito site

A city councilor has cited as a “place of concern” an old excavation site, owned by a private company, in barangay Labangon that might have already become a breeding area for dengue mosquitoes.

Councilor Gerardo Carillo, action officer of the city’s Disaster Coordinating Council, said the less than a hectare excavation site has been a catchbasin of heavy rain runoffs and the resulting stagnant water has been probable breeding ground of the dengue virus-carrying mosquitoes, the aedes egypti.

A surveillance has been conducted by the city after councilor Arsenio Pacaña raised alarm, during the City Council’s past session, over the condition of the excavated site along the south highway near a school.

Pacaña told the council that diggings were allegedly being done near the property and during downpours, water runoff went straight to the excavated site. 

Results of the surveillance reportedly revealed that the Labangon site has, through time, been transformed into a breeding ground for these mosquitoes.

This prompted Carillo to decide that he will submit a proposed resolution during the City Council session today asking the City Health Office to coordinate with the private property owner for the immediate cleanup of the site.

In case the lot owner fails to do so, Carillo said the city government may be forced to clean it at the expense of the owner or enforce “condemnation proceedings” over the site.

The city government has increased its campaign against the virus when records of dengue cases escalated to 110 percent from January to November this year compared to the same period last year.

Carillo said the total dengue cases in the city may have lowered during the last quarter of the year but city records showed that since January, barangay Labangon posted the highest number of 97 cases, followed by Lahug with 93 and Pardo with 65.

Dengue cases have reached the outbreak level since last August and has stayed as such until last October.

Last September 24, the city declared an outbreak of dengue fever in barangays Pardo, Labangon and Bulacao. Four days later, with 25 deaths recorded for this year, the city council declared the whole city under a state of calamity. The city government in turn allocated P5 million from its P20 million calamity fund against dengue.

The latest fatality was 22-year-old Aster Mangcay of baranggay Apas who died early morning on November 13 after just four days of recurring fever, or two weeks after a five-year-old boy from the same barangay died also of dengue.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña admitted before that the lack of concern in cleaning the surroundings may be a “hard habit to break” but he was optimistic that the people might change their bad habits somehow. — Joeberth M. Ocao/RAE