Saturday, December 22, 2007 Tomas to use rainbow fish v. dengue By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A BRIGADE of Marine reservists, policemen and Cebu City Hall personnel will troop to Barangay Labangon early today to fight the village’s number one enemy: mosquitoes.
They will be armed only with some 2,000 fishes to kill the carriers of the dengue virus, as well as some cleaning materials.
From his original proposal to pour used oil in the lagoon to drive away dengue-carrying mosquitoes, Mayor Tomas Osmeña now wants to try using fish to solve the dengue problem.
“City Health has given up on the fight against dengue because they want to save Mother Earth na lang... so we’re willing to try another suggestion sent to me by a concerned texter. We will use a certain fish to kill the mosquitoes,” he told reporters yesterday.
Some 2,000 rainbow fish, tilapia and silver fish will be placed in the 1.4-hectare lagoon in Labangon, which is believed to be a major breeding site of mosquitoes there. Labangon has the highest number of dengue cases among the city’s 80 barangays, with 97 cases recorded between Jan. 1 and Nov. 5.
Another death due to dengue was reported to the CHD yesterday, increasing to 49 the total number of deaths in the city alone. There have been 1,947 cases so far this year.
The National Epidemiology Center (NEC) of the Department of Health (DOH) had suggested that the use of larvacides would be a better way of dealing with the dengue problem rather than using used oil.
Dr. Enrique Tayag of the NEC earlier said that they tried using oil in the 1990’s but have since stopped the practice because it only clogged up drainage systems.
Too big
City Councilor Gerardo Carillo, chairman of the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council (CCDCC), said the CHD has larvacides but it would be impractical to use it in a breeding site that measures 1.4 hectares and 15 meters deep.
“This is a very big lagoon and it’s not practical if we use larvacides. We bought the larvacide using the calamity fund but if we use it in a 1.4-hectare lagoon, P3 to P4 million will not be enough,” he said.
Osmeña received yesterday noon a text message from a certain Mark Yu, who suggested using either salt or a kind of fish known as the rainbow fish, which eats the larvae.
“I asked our consultant and he said there are certain predatory fishes that we can buy that can kill mosquito larvae... So we will do that now, I’m not going to wait and waste time,” he said.
The mayor thanked Yu for coming up with suggestions to fight dengue, saying that if he had his way, he prefers to have someone like Yu at the CHD.
CHD personnel drew the mayor’s ire for not acting swiftly on his instructions to pour used oil in the lagoon, which he said will drive away mosquitoes.
Clean-up
A source from the CHD said they already requested for some used oil from the General Services Office (GSO) but it was the staff of Councilor Carillo who said that the Cebu City Dengue Task Force was still evaluating other means to kill or drive away mosquitoes.
The task force wants to look for a more effective, economical and safer way of addressing the problem, citing possible harmful effects used oil would have on the ecosystem.
Today, personnel from the CCDCC, CHD and Department of Public Services will conduct a major clearing and cleanup in the two-hectare property of the Gaisanos in Labangon.
Volunteers from the police and a Marine reserve brigade will also assist in the operations.
Carillo said they will drain the lagoon first using pumps and other heavy equipment, and place the fish in whatever water will be left. They may also pout use oil depending on the outcome of the cleanup.
“We already talked to the Gaisanos and they assured they will cooperate. We will do what we have to do at their expense and they agreed to pay so today we will clear the area and drain the water,” Carillo told Sun.Star Cebu.
Cheaper
In a phone interview last night, Dr. Nestor Alonso said that they might need some 2,000 fishes for the 1.4-hectare lagoon, but it could be less depending on the amount of water that will be left after the cleanup.
As of last night, he had only 30 silver fish that were donated and he expects to get the rest in two to three days.
“We can use whatever freshwater predator fish is available because it will eat anything that moves, including larvae. I tried it in my own house and in less than two days, wala na gyu’y nguyo-nguyo (all the larvae was gone),” said Alonso, City Hall’s consultant on agriculture and veterinary medicine.
He further said that using fish will be more economical than larvacides since the rainbow fish cost only P5 each and are easy to come by in the downtown sidewalks.
During their session last Wednesday, the council approved a resolution obligating a portion of the calamity fund amounting to P5 million to cover payments for the purchase of various hospital supplies used by the CHD and the city hospital to respond to dengue cases.
