The city of Janakpur is perhaps the dirtiest place in Nepal and perhaps even in the whole of the Indian subcontinent
There is no reported census of mosquitoes in Janakpur—or of our other cities and towns.

But if one is ever attempted, Janakpur will top the list, with the highest density of mosquito in Nepal and, most likely, in the world, in terms of per capita measure of land area as well as per city resident. If so, Janakpur can then rightly be designated the mosquito capital of the world!

For those who live there and or those who have visited the place for a week or even a day, the mosquitoes are visible everywhere and at all times, night and day. Mosquitoes in the city are so pervasive that people have accepted it as a part of life, to the extent that they can’t imagine a place in the world that doesn’t have mosquitoes. Recently, people have reported the emergence of walking mosquitoes, on top of those which fly around, looking for any living organism to prey on and find a place to lay eggs.

There is no mystery why Janakpur could be the host to so many mosquitoes. The place can be cited as the dirtiest in the country and perhaps in the whole Indian subcontinent and this creates a heaven-like condition for mosquitoes to live and breed, to the extent that it is a wonder how a human being could choose to live in a place like this, much less to sustain a healthy life.

Besides the open sewer and enormous amount of filth in the city, one very special feature of the place and its vicinity is the presence of water-reservoirs—locally called sagar or phokharis, the largest one about a quarter mile across. Also, in per capita measure, Janakpur may have the highest concentration of pokharis in the world.

Pokharis are credited with benefiting local residents in many ways, social as well as environmental. Pokharis are the main bathing places for city residents as well as for washing clothes and household utensils and they also provide refuge to farm animals during summer months, an escape from awful heat that renders the city almost unlivable.

Environmentally, summertime evaporation helps cool the city by making the air moist.

Now the other side of the pokhari story more than offset their benefits. This, in large part, relates to mosquitoes, for the reason that the presence of open stagnant water provides an ideal home for mosquitoes to lay eggs and multiply. In fact, open water spots have been called a sort of maternity wards for mosquitoes. For example, open water spots are so inviting for the mosquitoes that, as little as one spoonful of water placed outside one’s home is enough for one single female mosquito to lay as many as 50 eggs called larvae. 

Open sewer lines scattered throughout the city must breed billions of mosquitoes and, when you add the pokharis, you can easily get mosquito production in the city into trillions in the peak season, decidedly a large presence in a city of just a quarter million people. It is then not difficult to see how miserable and unhealthy life conditions of city residents can be and that the mosquito epidemic keeps visitors away despite the city’s well-known pilgrimage sites that can otherwise draw hordes of tourists and help earn sizeable revenue. 

Until now, menace from mosquitoes is measured in terms of malarial virus that it carries but mosquitoes have been cited as the carriers of a host of other menacing diseases, including dengue and yellow fevers, chikungunya, West Nile virus, and, lately, the zika virus that causes birth defects in babies who are born with small heads and brain disorders known as microcephally. Additionally, the zika virus has been connected to the Guillian-Barré syndrome that causes the immune system to attack the nervous system, leading to a weakening of the limbs and sometimes paralysis.

At the moment, the world is grappling with the threat of zika that has spread to dozens of countries around the world. In the United States, for example, the first case of zika was found early this year in Florida via Brazil. The virus probably travelled through Puerto Rico, a US territory, and from there came to the US mainland. More lately, the spread of zika has been sourced to local mosquito breeds, rather than overseas. At this time, zika cases in the US have been limited to certain regions of Florida that are being contained by well-guarded fumigation effort that would protect human health and domestic animals but, in some cases, useful insects like honeybees have been wiped out.

In the Asia region, countries where zika virus has been found include Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In its travel advisory issued by the US agency Center for Disease Control (CDC), it has warned pregnant women to avoid Singapore because of a fast-growing zika outbreak there.

Although the zika virus hasn’t been found yet in Nepal, the likelihood of its occurrence in areas like Janakpur with heavy mosquito infestation remains high, “There is a high chance of the [zika] virus entering Nepal’s Tarai via India,” says Dr Baburam Marasini, director at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division, of the Department of Health Services, adding that precaution is needed to prevent possible epidemic.

But what kind of precaution? Of course, people can be encouraged to use mosquito nets and safeguard their places with mosquito repellents. But, for most people, these devices will not be easy to afford and to get used to. People can also be encouraged to keep their yards and vicinity free of stagnant water. Additionally, at the community level, fumigation can be carried out in a larger campaign of mosquito eradication.

However, past experience suggests, such efforts are sporadic and forgotten after some initial success. With regard to fumigation, a large campaign for malaria eradication had been launched in the 1950s which, however, was soon suspended and later banned for the reason of damage to environment, a point of view that was celebrated in a semi-fictional book by Rachel Carson, titled The Silent Spring, published in 1962. The DDT is still used on a small scale for malaria control but the chemical’s harmful effects have prevented its greater use.

So the focus now should be to clean up the mosquito habitat which, as noted, comprises the open patches of water, large or small, clean or dirty. The solution to mosquito problem and, implicitly, of diseases like malaria and zika then comes down to public sanitation and, particularly in places like Janakpur, filling in all the ditches and reservoirs where water can accumulate, including the city’s much revered landmarks that are its pokharis.

It is not enough that pokharis and sewer lines be cleaned to prevent mosquitoes from breeding. In fact, mosquitoes prefer clean water for laying eggs. The only way that mosquitoes’ egg-laying effort could be frustrated is if there is no exposed water source present around homes, except in cases where water is flowing naturally—in streams and rivers—or when water is circulating in a contained place, as in cases of backyard beautification.

It then looks like Janakpur pokharis and pokharis all over Madhesh must all go. They will have to be periodically drained and refilled. If zika virus does come to Janakpur, filling in pokharis and, generally, cleaning up the town will literally be a do-or-die decision for city planners. 

The author teaches economics at various universities in the US

sshah1983@hotmail.com

 
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