Mosquito control project signed

A signing ceremony for the mosquito control project was held at the Presidency of the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (EMT) in Komotini.

The project was signed by the President of EMT Christos Metios and the legal representative of the contractor company ASNF Aviation Applications I.K.E.

Vasilis Lurbas, Head of the State for Health and Lukas Georgiou, Director of Public Health of the EMT Directorate were also present at the signing ceremony of the mosquito control project, which will cover all regions of the state.

The signed project covers a period of three years, 2023, 2024 and 2025. The total cost of the project will be 8.3 million euro.

Among the works to be carried out within the scope of the project; 

- Systematic identification of possible development foci of mosquito larvae in a wide area in natural and agricultural environment.

- Aerial spraying of larvicides and aphids in natural and agricultural environments.

- Provision of data on important breeding sites of mosquito larvae in aerial spraying to the services of the Prefecture of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace.

- Surveillance of breeding mosquitoes using appropriate traps at selected locations to check the effectiveness of aerial spraying of breeding mosquitoes.

- Monitoring of the growing mosquito population and West Nile virus circulation levels in the rural and natural environment across the state.

- Preparation and submission of the annual and final annual report.

Metios, President of the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, made a statement on the contract and the fight against mosquitoes at the signing ceremony. "Our goal in the fight against mosquitoes is to achieve better results every year. This year, we started spraying at the end of March with a bridge programme that we funded and implemented in the period between the old and the new three-year control programme. Therefore, today, after two months of additional spraying, we have signed a contract for the immediate start of the new three-year programme of aerial combat actions for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025. With the end of the restrictions we have imposed in the past years due to the pandemic, spraying is more intensive this year, while the controls of our services are also more intense. At the same time, we are paying more attention to the correct information of citizens, which is important in order not to neglect individual protection measures."