Rainfall in the City may have been deficient last year, but into the second month of the monsoon season this year, the City is receiving excess amounts of rainfall. The monsoon has been ‘comfortable’ so far, according to Dr G S Vijayaraghavan, director of the Meteorological Department.

The projected rainfall for peninsular India this year is 94 per cent of  Normal Rainfall or NR (which is an average of at least 30 years of rainfall).

The monsoon typically begins on June 1 but this year its onset was early though its progress was delayed due to cyclone in the Arabian Sea, he explained.

While there was deficient rainfall in June in the City (47.7 mm against 80.8 of NR), in July (up to 24th) the City has received 156.4 mm against an NR of 110.2 mm.

Seasonal diseases
Meanwhile, the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Services is taking measures to prevent monsoon-related diseases.

The stagnant pools of water that form after rains are ideal breeding ground for a number of disease-bearing mosquitoes, resulting in the outbreak of vector-borne diseases like malaria, filaria, Japanese Encephalitis (JE), dengue and chikungunya.

State-wide, there have been 14,178 cases of malaria, six suspected JE cases, 27 dengue cases and 1,915 cases of filaria (all recorded up to May 2007) and 796 suspected cases of chikungunya (up to June 25), according to Directorate statistics.

Water-borne diseases are also common. There have been 11,759 gastroenteritis cases, 26 cholera, 9183 typhoid, 1183 viral hepatitis (jaundice) and 18 leptospirosis (rat fever) cases -- all recorded up to this May.
The Directorate is undertaking campaigns to spread awareness on how to keep these disease at bay, besides fogging, drug administration camps for filariasis and vaccinations for JE, providing free mosquito nets and halogen tablets, etc.