Mosquito haven

While health authorities have been stressing the need for householders to keep their surroundings clean to avoid the breeding of mosquitoes, a dilapidated government property in St James has become a hotbed for the breeding of the dengue-causing insects.
What used to be the District “D” Police Station is now a run-down abandoned building full of filth and rubbish and littered with dead rodents, dead birds and mosquitoes.
When Roxanne Browne, who lives nextdoor, began seeing hundreds of mosquitoes swarming around her apartment complex, she couldn’t figure out from where they were coming. She went into the building two months ago to investigate and found the source.
“I would open my front door and just see hundreds of mosquitoes flying around and I kept asking myself, ‘where could these be coming from?’ I decided to go into the old police station building next door and when I went in I found pools of dirty water on the floor breeding mosquitoes.”
The water, which Browne described as a huge pool, was getting into a section of the building because the roof blew off three years ago during a storm.
Browne said while she immediately called health inspectors at the Black Rock Polyclinic, she also decided to take matters into her own hands to protect her family.
“I mixed diesel and oil and went inside and threw it into the water and you should see the mosquitos just flying out. I am very concerned because I have a son and now we have to keep the doors and windows closed.”
During a visit of the property yesterday lots of garbage could be seen on the floor, including old bedding, old furniture and several documents seemingly left behind by the police when they relocated from the building. The pools of water were no longer there but Browne expressed fear that whenever it rained the water would settle again.
When contacted, an official at the Ministry of Housing and Lands confirmed that the building was the property of the Crown.
When informed about the mosquito problem, he said: “That matter was taken care of last Friday”.
However, Browne expressed surprise when given this information.
“Up to Saturday I went out there and sprayed the rooms,” she said, adding that hundreds of mosquitos were still swarming around her house.
A police source said that after they moved out the Government was supposed to build a day nursery on the spot. He said something needed to be done with the building because there was evidence that “paros” were invading it.