Cebu City’s Anti-Dengue Task Force has confirmed that the two man-made ponds in the city, one at sitio Bugnay Dos in Labangon and the other in barangay Lahug, are breeding sites of dengue-causing mosquitoes.
Councilor Gerardo Carillo yesterday said that sanitary inspectors who checked and conducted entomological study on these two ponds have verified the presence of these mosquitoes in these places, and recommended for immediate action to contain these sites.
Carillo, also the action officer of the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council, said that the action would be done today.
He said that at least 30 volunteers will go to the Labangon site to drain the water from the pond and cover it with filling materials.
“It would be like bayanihan because the neighborhood association would be the ones to put filling materials on the lagoon. The barangay will provide cement for the drainage so that water will no longer contain there and the city would be the one to provide filling materials and food for the volunteers,” the councilor said.
Carillo said the sitio Bugnay Dos pond is surrounded by the urban poor community where residents have been threatened of dengue since. He added that of the 80 dengue total cases recorded in Labangon, the most over all other barangays last year. He said that 17 of these cases were from sitio Bugnay Dos.
On Monday, Carillo said the activities will shift to a pond in Lahug, which was also verified recently as a breeding site of dengue-carrying mosquitoes.
The city however has to meet first with the property owners, the Redemptorists and the Metro Cebu Water District, to discuss any plans they might have for the pond, said Carillo.
The pond was built for recreational purpose, and that the MCWD even beautified it by planting trees around the area. This was later abandoned, however, because of reports that some children had drowned there.
“It would be better if they maintain it as recreational area. They could put fishes there so mosquitoes will no longer breed there,” Carillo said.
Carillo mentioned another pond, a 1.4-hectare wide one in Labangon. He said that they found it out not a breeding site for mosquitoes but still the task force would try to address it because its impounded watere is dirty with garbage and waste from septic tanks and drainage.
This has to be cleaned up to prevent it from causing other diseases. “It not because that it can’t cause dengue that we will no longer clean it,” Carillo said. — Wenna A. Berondo/RAE