No fewer than 300 expectant and nursing mothers in Kwale community, Ndokwa West Local Government Area of Delta State have benefited from a mosquito control intervention. The programme is meant to protect them from malaria.
The event, which was unveiled and still ongoing at the Ndokwa Local Government Secretariat Hall, was organised by End Malaria in Nigeria.
It’s in collaboration with Malaria Partners International (MPI), Rotary Club of Kwale ( New Dawn) and Hatch Pest Control and Environmental Services Limited.
Themed: “Attack Mosquito to Attack Mosquito” the intervention was to protect women from the malaria scourge which kills an average of 300,000 people annually in Nigeria alone.
Indoor residual spraying was carried out to protect the homes of the women from mosquitoes between three to six months. There was also a larviciding of drainages in the community of beneficiary
According to the Chairman, Obi Nzete, represented by the Supervisor for Health, Mrs Joyce Okonye, malaria is a huge challenge in the community and it needed a drastic solution to combat it.
The Registrar of the Environmental Health Council of Nigeria (EHCON), under the Ministry of Environment, Dr Mohammed Yakubu, who was represented by the Deputy Head of Department (HOD) of the Environmental Health Department of the local government, Mr Clement Okonye said there is a need for proper sanitation, cutting of weeds, not clogging drainages and construction of modern drainage so as not to provide breeding sites for mosquito.
The council chapter of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) Chairman, Comrade Ikechukwu Opone urged the community to always clean its drainage system to avoid breeding spaces for a mosquito to thrive.
The Immediate past President of the Rotary Club of Kwale, Juliet Onakpovhie said that the intervention came at the right time when malaria posed a huge burden in the Kwale community and it was because of expectant and nursing women that necessitated intervention.
Also, the President of the club Mr. Alexander Osademe said that the intervention was not new as there have been several interventions by the Club.
In his keynote address, Managing Director of Hatch Pest Control and Environmental Service Limited (HPCESL), Francis Nwapa said that the campaign is aimed to redirect malaria elimination interventions from curative to preventive and quit cosmetic approach.
He said that If African countries such as Lesotho, Mauritius, Algeria Libya, Egypt, LA Reunion, Seychelles, Azerbaijan, Belize, Tajikistan and Tunisia have been declared malaria-free, then Nigeria can put an end to the over 200, 000 deaths caused by malaria.
Nwapa explained that a country is granted malaria-free certification by World Health Organisation(WHO) when the country has proven that it has interrupted indigenous transmission of the disease for at least three consecutive years.
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He appealed to the federal, state, and local government authorities to mobilize the services of environmental health professionals for a national environmental health and water management plan that will address drainage and dams construction, and the construction of sanitary landfill among others.
He said: “As a direct process of fighting mosquito in Nigeria government should invest in primary health care and improve remuneration for health workers, adequately fund Nigeria vaccine development laboratory, Nigeria Institute of Medical Research, and also establish and adequately fund research centres in universities across the nation.”
A beneficiary of the mosquito control intervention, Mrs Blessing Otuya thanked the organisers for helping to eliminate mosquitoes in her household and the community.
Another beneficiary, Ms Dorcas Alaha said the organisers have done a great job of making an effort to prevent mosquitoes in the community.
The event was anchored by a member of the End Malaria in Nigeria, Mr Babatunde Oluajo.