The Coimbatore Corporation has launched a 10-day Dengue Prevention League (DPL), a competition among conservancy workers from its five zones aimed at intensifying dengue source reduction across the city.

The league, which began on August 4, will continue till August 14. Teams representing the north, south, east, west and central zones are competing in a round-robin format, with each zone facing the other once.

In the first two matches, the east and west zones emerged winners. The East Zone defeated the North Zone on Tuesday after collecting 2,43,986 potential mosquito breeding sources, compared with 2,12,067 sources collected by the North Zone. On Wednesday, the West Zone emerged winner against the Central Zone by collecting 2,88,403 sources, while the Central Zone collected 2,43,595 sources. The two-day collection total stood at 9,88,051 sources.

The civic body expects the campaign to result in the removal of around 30 lakh potential mosquito breeding sources from across the city.

Corporation Health Officer V.C. Subash Gandhi said the campaign focuses on eliminating discarded materials capable of holding stagnant water, including plastic bottles, tyres, coconut shells, broken containers and other waste found in residential areas, roadsides and vacant plots.

He said the campaign would cover nearly six lakh households in the city and around 450 vacant sites in each zone.

The initiative follows a five-day trial conducted in the last week of July, during which conservancy workers removed 15.62 lakh potential mosquito breeding sources. The collections rose from 73,831 on the first day to nearly five lakh on the fourth day, reflecting the enthusiasm of the field staff, he said.

“The trial showed that a competitive format motivates the workers and improves source reduction. The objective is to eliminate places where mosquitoes breed before the monsoon,” Mr. Gandhi said.

As part of the league, sanitary inspectors will be assessed based on the number of breeding sources removed in each fixture, with awards for the best-performing inspector after every match and an overall ‘Player of the Series’ at the end of the competition.

Mr. Gandhi said conservancy workers would be allowed to sell any saleable waste collected during the campaign and retain the proceeds. Besides reducing mosquito breeding, the drive is expected to improve cleanliness in vacant lands and other vulnerable locations across the city.

Published - August 05, 2026 08:15 pm IST