Local bodies across the State have stepped up pre-monsoon cleaning activities to prevent the incidence and spread of vector-borne diseases and other epidemics which occur during the monsoon season.
The Local Self-Governments department (LSGD), which is in the middle of the multiphase ‘Malinya Muktham Nava Keralam’ campaign, is coordinating with various departments as well as with the local community in every place as part of the cleaning drive.
Ahead of the cleaning drive, local bodies have conducted coordination meetings in the presence of various levels of officials, which were followed by organising district-level training for officials of Local Self-Government Institutions (LSGIs).
Meetings held
Of the 19,489 wards in local bodies across the State, pre-monsoon sanitation committees were either formed or reconstituted in 15,987 of them. Pre-monsoon committees convened meetings in 14,310 wards and steps were taken to urgently call meetings in the rest of the 5,179 wards. As part of the ward-level action plans, a vast stretch of over 2,224 km of waterbodies and canals has already been cleaned up and another 2,443 km will be cleaned up before the onset of monsoon.
The sanitation committees have identified 327 hotspots apart from those marked as hotspots by the Health department in the last two years. Adequate caution has been taken in places that have been found as public health risk zones, which include houses, institutions, and public spaces.
As per the direction from LSGD, massive efforts to remove and transport non bio-disposable waste from all LSGIs are under way. In the first phase, LSGIs have completed pre-monsoon cleaning drive in all the culverts in their areas, besides conducting awareness classes, chlorination drive, and destroying the mosquito breeding spots. Clearing of accumulated waste from canals, public toilets, and public spaces are going on with the coordination and support of officials, people’s representatives, Suchitwa Mission Resource Person, Haritha Karma Sena (HKS), Kudumbshree workers, and social activists.
House visits
ASHA workers are visiting houses to build awareness on the importance of sanitation activities in houses and preventive measures. Secretaries of LSGIs have started to take action against the houses and institutions mentioned in the list given by Health department officials for not complying with the pre-monsoon directives.
The meetings of officials of the Irrigation department and Urban and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee mission were also held for taking steps to ensure free flow of waterbodies and avoid water logging. Doxycycline tablets have been prescribed to those who work in water-logged areas, besides LSGD is coordinating with the Labour department to conduct camps among migrant labourers.
