Chaguanas mayor looks at crop dusters to fight dengue

The Chaguanas Borough Corporation is contemplating footing the bill to employ crop dusters in the fight to control the Aedes Egypti mosquito and curb the spread of dengue in the borough. This was announced by Chaguanas mayor Orlando Nagessar when he spoke with reporters yesterday after the launch of a state-of-the-art dredger at the Lady Espaniol River at Felicity.

Nagessar said spraying from the air was the only efficient alternative to control the mosquito population over the vast expanse of abandoned Caroni (1975) Ltd lands surrounding the borough. He said he held talks with Harry Dass, the chairman of Briko Air Services, and Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner on the issue. He said he plans to speak with Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan to get funding for the project.

The mayor said the borough had stepped up its localised spraying and education programme since it was announced earlier this week that 260 cases of the disease had been confirmed in central Trinidad. Dass said Briko has four aircraft with the capacity to do aerial spraying and has more that 40 years experience spraying crops.

The company also did extensive work for the sugar industry in the heyday of Caroni (1975) Ltd. Nagessar said the mosquito problem was at an all-time low when Caroni was in operation, because of regular spraying.