After last year’s ‘summer-to-forget’, when local beaches were overrun by clouds of angry mosquitos, Silves council is taking no chances. Mayor Rosa Palma is making sure her administration tackles mosquito-hazards head-on – something last year’s ruling PSD council failed to do.
It was, in fact, the worst summer Silves can remember. Hundreds of irate tourists left beaches in droves, complaining to newspapers and television as they were overcome by mozzie-clouds.
Even a last-ditch stand designed to blast the bugs away using a Kamov helicopter did little to improve the situation.
“The whole disaster stemmed from the fact that the council did not use the chemicals to spray mosquito larva until the mosquitoes were well past their larval stage,” Rosa Palma told the Resident. “In other words, the chemicals were rendered useless.
“This year, we will be spraying on time. There won’t be any repeat of last year’s fiasco.”
Not only this, the council has been ‘opening up’ Alcantarilha river to the sea to release stagnant waters.
Rogério Belchior, head of Silves’ hygiene sector, told Correio da Manhã last week that the river has been drained into the sea “more than 10 times” since the last rains, so there is no chance of any kind of bug build-up.
Meantime – as temperatures start to rise – council workers are out in force, spraying areas around Armação de Pêra/Praia Grande “once or twice a week”.
