SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Relief is on the way for residents of Westmoreland who have been plagued by swarms of mosquitoes since Hurricane Beryl. On Thursday the municipal corporation presented a new fogging machine, valued at almost $400,000, to the Westmoreland Health Department.

It’s a welcome addition to ongoing efforts to rid the area of the winged pests.

“We have been distributing drum covers and we are asking residents to keep the drums covered and keep the mosquitoes out,” chief public health inspector for Westmoreland Steve Morris urged during the handover.

He expressed concern that repeated messages appear ineffective.

“I am not sure what is happening but our residents don’t seem to be responding to [our plea to search for and destroy mosquitoes]. This is why we are left in this position to respond, as the team, to nullify those adults that came out of those water sources,” Morris said.

At the end of June, the Aedes Index in the parish was 6.5 per cent, which is still above World Health Organization (WHO) standard of five per cent.

“Currently we are doing morning and evening fogging in communities to try as best as we possibly can to reach as many of the communities as we can in the shortest time,” Morris stated.

“We want to tell [the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation] that the Westmoreland Health Department is appreciative of this machine. At this time we do not have a positive case of dengue, but since the start of the year we have been monitoring the situation, as there is an increase [in the Aedes index] for this same period from last year.”

Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar Councillor Danree Delancy (People’s National Party, Bethel Town Division) explained that the fogging machine was provided after Morris made the corporation aware that there was a need.

“Chief Morris contacted us here at the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation stating that one of their fogging machines was destroyed,” the mayor stated.

“We thought it best to respond to that request. We value our partnership with the Westmoreland Health Department because we know that such partnerships can only work for the betterment of our parish. We want to continue enjoying good work relationships with all our agencies,” Delancy added.

To complement the wok being done by health officials, Morris urged residents to destroy mosquito habitats in their yards at least once per week. He conceded that, with an interruption to the water supply since the hurricane, some communities now have an even heavier reliance on water stored in drums; however, he asked them to do their best to minimise opportunities for mosquitoes to breed.

Westmoreland is just one of the many sections of the country that has seen an upsurge in mosquitoes since the storm. Health officials have explained that there are 74 different species of mosquitoes and there has been an upsurge in the ones that are fierce biters.