Government spending cuts for mosquito spraying which delayed the eradication procedure have allowed the insects to avoid much the efforts to kill them and they are already appearing.
According to the Hellenic Ministry of Health, spraying for mosquitoes had to start in mid-March and to be completed by the end of April, in order to eradicate the mosquitoe larvae. However, the procedure has just begun and mosquitoes are showing up because of a mild winter.
The main reason is that municipalities weren’t given money in time to bid for companies to do the spraying.
The Attica Region has €700,000 ($905,235) for spraying programs on wide areas of its responsibility, as forests and riverbeds. The municipalities are entrusted with small interventions, as spraying in manholes, small riverbeds and parks.
According to officials of the Attica Region, spraying in all areas of eastern Attica has started and similar action is expected to be done in the rest regional units.
Angelos Antonopoulos, Athens’ Vice-Mayor, said spraying began in high risk areas in the city last month but that a number of others, such as riverbeds, still haven’t been done.
High risk areas, according to the Ministry of Health, are the prefectures of Elis, Achaea, Aetoloakarnania, Messinia, Argolida and Evros and the regions Orchomenos, Thiva, Chalkida, Marathon, Saronikosa and Markopoulo among others.
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