Dubai Municipality saves Dh3.5m applying fish breeding project for mosquito control

Dubai: Dubai Municipality has recently started implementing a fish breeding project to combat mosquito larvae that breed in irrigation basins and water pools in different areas in the emirate of Dubai. The project was adopted based on a collective proposal which won the Ideas Arabia Award 2013, submitted by Hisham Abdul Rahman Yahya, Head of Pest Control Section, Dr. Mahi Gibran, Public Health Studies Specialist and Ali Obaid Bakhit , Head of Technical Services Unit. Hisham Yahya said the application of this suggestion led to a change to the conventional method of eliminating mosquito larvae using chemical pesticides which could have had a negative impact on the environment and public health. "There are areas where stagnant water collects because of the flow of groundwater, rain, artificial lakes and water leaks from sewage, all of which lead to mosquito breeding in these areas as well as in irrigation tanks. The Department used to spray these areas and basins with insecticide to eliminate insects and their larvae continuously in order to control mosquito breeding. This conventional method entails costs for the use of pesticides, insecticides and workers, in addition to its negative impact on groundwater and soil as it contain chemicals that mix with soil, seep into the groundwater and cause pollution," he said. "Based on the new proposal, a large number of locally farmed fish called Aphanius Dispar are distributed in agriculture pools and water lakes in Dubai, as this type of fish eats mosquito larvae and eliminate them completely without the need to use any chemicals which in turn saves money, the environment and public health," he added. Based on the economic and environmental feasibility study on implementation of the proposal, the idea has been applied successfully by DM where the fish were distributed in 1,398 irrigation basins in farms and 292 watersheds. Salah Amiri, Assistant Director General for Environmental and Public Health Services Sector at Dubai Municipality, and Zuhoor Al Sabbagh, Director of Public Health Services Department, have supervised the most important stages of the application of the proposal, which includes construction of fishponds, contracting with a company specialised in fish farming in order to produce the fish in large enough quantities to cover all irrigation ponds in farms and watersheds . Al Sabbagh praised the efforts of all participants in this proposal in terms of economic and health aspects and said the department plans to develop the proposal through breeding other types of fish to be used in the field of pest control in the Emirate of Dubai. The cost of the project is approximately Dh102,000, helping to rationalise approximately Dh 3,500,000. "The proposal also contributes to developing green projects and increasing employee satisfaction through a comfortable work environment, reducing time and effort and improving the environment, public health and safety. It helps reduce the contamination of soil and groundwater and controls the prevalence of diseases and epidemics due to the proliferation of mosquitoes,' Al Sabbagh said. – Emirates News Agency, WAM