Peddapalli district in Telangana witnessed an 85 percent drop in dengue and chikungunya cases even as the entire state has been gripped with mosquito-borne diseases.
The dip in dengue cases is the result of the initiative of soak pits which helped declare several villages open-drain free, The Times of India reported.
"Around 43 cases were reported this year. Most of them are of people who came here from Hyderabad. Open nalas in the village are generally breeding grounds for mosquitoes. But with individual soak pits and community soak pits, we were able to curtail the breeding of mosquitoes," Peddapalli district collector A Devasena told TOI.
"If we look at just the high-risk months of June to September the percentage decrease for dengue and chikungunya is 89% and 95 %, respectively. This is mainly due to the Swaccha Shukravaram programme, a house-to-house initiative taken up every Friday in our district, for the past six months. An intensive drive was taken up, and more than 75,000 magic soak pits were provided, under MNREGS, to every single household in the district," Devasena added.
“All the wastewater from the household, apart from rainwater from the roof, goes into this pit and not into the side drains in front of every house. This ensures effective liquid waste management in each household itself, apart from effective water harvesting.,” Devasena said.
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