Andhra Pradesh proposed Smart Mosquito Density System to fight vector-borne diseases

The Government of Andhra Pradesh in the first week of March 2017 sent a proposal for the deployment of a Smart Mosquito Density System to the Union Ministry of Urban Development.

Once approved, the system will be the first-of-its-kind project in the country.

Features of Smart Mosquito Density System

• Under the system, modern technologies will be deployed to detect mosquito breeding before malaria and other vector-borne diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and zika become an epidemic.

• Initially, the system will be deployed in three urban local bodies of the State – Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam and Tirupati.

• Optical sensors will be fixed to electricity poles to capture density, species and gender of mosquitoes before moving in to exterminate them.

• As per the initial proposal, around 10 sensors will be deployed per a square kilometer area. On this basis, a total of 1,850 sensors will be deployed across 185 square kilometers of three cities.

• The devices will analyse and transfer mosquito density data along with location to a central database.

• Special applications will be developed to prepare mosquito density heat maps based on the information received from sensors.

• The Phase I of the project is expected to cost Rs 4 crore. The project will be executed by utilizing the final assistance from the Union Government.

How the System will help the authorities?

• The system will operate autonomously and use state-of-the-art internet of things (IoT) technology to alert health and other agencies of emergencies.

• These thematic maps will help government agencies in prioritising sprays.

• The system will help the authorities in identifying breeding at exact location and that too with the right sprays for a particular species.

• Smart phones and web applications will be used to report sprays by location. And, there will be analytics to monitor the effectiveness of sprays.