City to act on rodent issue

ETHEKWINI Municipality has taken a proactive approach to effectively manage the rodent problem in the City.

Various City units are already on the ground working to tackle the rat problem and a new forum has been established with relevant departments to work on a large-scale plan of action. The City Rodent Management Forum consists of Vector Control, Roads and Stormwater, Parks, Durban Solid Waste, eThekwini Transport Authority, Informal Trade, Markets, Environmental Health and Areas Based Management.

The Forum held its first meeting on 17 March, where the various departments outlined current programmes being implemented to manage the solution. However, the aim of the Forum was for an integrated plan of action to be drawn up and implemented to holistically tackle the issue.

The Forum will meet monthly for the next few months, before meeting quarterly.

Dr Ayo Olowolagba, Head of the City’s Communicable Disease Control Department said they wanted to work towards making the City rodent free.

“It is a reality that we have incidents of rats breeding in places they should not be. It is important for us to come together as relevant stakeholders to discuss a way forward. We have to deal with the problem at the source, otherwise we will keep treating only the symptoms and the problem will continue repeating itself,” he said.

Rodents impact negatively on residents’ health as they act as reservoirs for more than 60 different diseases including the Plague, Rat-Bite Fever, Lassa Fever, Hanavirus and Murine Typhus to name a few. The Brown Rat is the most common rodent in Durban.

Olowolagba said rodent control is a challenge as rats multiply at a fast rate. Females are sexually active from two and a half months and will have a litter of between eight to 10 pups after 21 days. It takes 21 days to wean the litter before she can mate and give birth again. The weaned litter are sexually active after six to eight weeks.

Breeding sites for rodents include sites of refuse accumulation, problem buildings, manholes that are not cleaned, electrical substations, refuse bin areas, unmaintained road verges, recycling sites, taxi and bus ranks and markets and informal traders where correct waste disposal was not being practiced.

Olowolagba said while there were a lot of contributing factors leading to the rodent infestation in the City, stakeholders had to come together with a collective plan to achieve results.

“An important message is that everyone has a role to play to help solve this problem. That includes the public who needs to practice proper waste management. We are all generators of waste but we need to handle it properly. Every bit of littered dirt makes a difference,” he said.

He added that the public needed to own their spaces and keep it clean.

“If you are trading or living in an area, keep it clean. Don’t create the conditions for rodents to breed. We need a mindset change among people which is why we need influential people in communities to come on board and help us educate people,” Olowolagba said.