Cutbona fishing jetty turns hotspot for deadly vector-borne diseases every year

This is coupled with the fact that water accumulation at the jetty and the adjoining area offer perfect breeding ground for vector-borne diseases.

Cutbona fishing jetty is the home for over 150 fishing vessels, employing thousands of migrants, who mostly come from the malaria and dengue endemic states.

Health sources told The Goan that during the anti-larvae operations launched at the jetty last week, the health teams had come across water accumulation in and around the jetty, offering perfect breeding sites for mosquitoes. 

Mechanism to screen and 

test the migrant workers

Balli Primary Health Officer, Dr Benedita Dias  informed that a health worker was posted at the Cutbona jetty to screen the migrant labourers arriving at the jetty in the month of August. She claimed that around 800 migrant  workers were screened by the health worker for malaria.

A host of questions, however, remains unanswered, including a moot question whether the authorities, including the health and fisheries department have put in place a mechanism to ensure that each and every migrant arriving at the jetty is screened and tested.

This question assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of the claim made by the Balli PHC that health workers have screened around 800 migrants in the month of August. The health and fisheries officials will have to answer a contentious question “ whether only migrant workers have arrived at the Cutbona fishing jetty when thousands of workers descend at the jetty to work on the fishing vessels every year?

Officials of the two departments will have to further answer the question why no full-proof mechanism is put in place, where workers employed on a fishing vessels are all screened first at the makeshift health help desk at the jetty before they board the vessels for fishing.