10.6  Determining insecticide requirements

The amount of insecticide required for your village depends on:

• The type of insecticide to be sprayed.
• The number of households and housing units (a structure/room used by households for sleeping, storage, shelter for animals or other purposes) in your village.
• The average surface area of the housing units; surface area refers to the area of the walls, roof and furniture to be sprayed by insecticide; if houses are big in your village, they will have more surface area to be sprayed and need more insecticide per house than will be needed to spray small houses.

The type of insecticide to be sprayed is decided nationally. Information about the number of households and housing units for your village is kept at the District Health Office (and may need to be updated by you from time to time). The average surface area of the housing units in your village is also known by the District Health Office. If necessary you can work with experts from the District or the Regional Health Office to update these measurements. Based on the above data, the amount of insecticide required for IRS in your village is calculated by experts at the District Health Office and sent to you at your health post.

You are responsible for the safe storage and handling of the insecticide at the village level. Most insecticides are pre-weighed and pre-packed in sachets that have to be dissolved in 8 litres (8,000 ml) of water to fill a spray pump. 40 ml of the insecticide needs to be sprayed per square metre (m²) of surface area, so a full spray pump (8,000 ml) is enough to spray 200 m².