PM says mosquito control methods can be developed at home, rejects US trip

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has rejected a proposal for a delegation from the Chattogram City Corporation to travel to the United States to study mosquito control measures, saying such methods could be developed locally without overseas visits.

The proposed delegation, led by Chattogram City Corporation Mayor Shahadat Hossain, sought permission to visit laboratories and factories in Chicago and Florida to inspect what officials described as “innovative mosquito control activities.”

According to the proposal, the delegation would have included Acting Chief Executive Officer Mohammad Ashraful Amin, Chief Cleaning Officer Captain Ikhtiar Uddin Ahmed, Chief Accounting Officer Mohammad Humayun Kabir Chowdhury, Malaria and Mosquito Control Officer Md. Sarful Islam, and an official from the Ministry of Local Government.

The trip was to be funded by Valeant Biosciences LLC, a foreign institution.

The Ministry of Local Government forwarded a summary of the proposal to the prime minister’s office for approval, but Rahman declined to authorize the visit.

“There is no need to go to Florida in the United States to learn or see mosquito control. Just by staying next to any pond in the country after evening for two to three hours, it will be possible to find many innovative methods of mosquito control,” Rahman said in instructions accompanying the rejection of the proposal.

The prime minister also said that “it is possible to find innovative methods of mosquito control by standing next to a pond in the evening in the country,” according to reports from the Prime Minister’s Press Wing.

Captain Ikhtiar Uddin Ahmed, Chief Sanitation Officer of the Chattogram City Corporation, confirmed that the delegation would not be travelling.

“He did not receive permission to travel abroad from the Ministry of Local Government,” Ahmed told Prothom Alo.

Despite the rejection of the proposed visit, city authorities said the corporation is already using modern technologies in its mosquito control efforts.

An official said the Chattogram City Corporation has purchased BTI (Bacillus thuringiensis Israelensis), a biological insecticide used for mosquito control, at a cost of about 4.5 crore taka ($370,000). The product is currently being used across the city as part of efforts to curb mosquito populations.