(Barbados Nation) Government yesterday started a comprehensive programme to at least halve the rat population, which is estimated to be in the region of one million, in the capital city of Bridgetown and its environs over the next 12 months.
Senior Environmental Health Officer of the Ministry of Health’s Vector Control Unit, Maurice Gaskin, revealed that environmental officers from six of the country’s polyclinics had been banded together to conduct a new baiting programme which would not only concentrate on Bridgetown, but the Garrison and further south in Hastings, Christ Church.
“We’ll be going all out to make a massive dent in the rat population of Bridgetown especially.
“We have done a good job of reducing the population in the last year, but the stakeholders involved recognize the importance of the City as a tourist area and a world heritage site, so that’s why we’ve decided to seriously increase the effort,” Gaskin told the WEEKEND NATION yesterday.
