HIL(India) Ltd supplies 20.60 tonne of DDT to South Africa for malaria control programme

State-owned HIL (India) Ltd has supplied 20.60 tonne of organochlorine insecticide DDT to South Africa for a malaria control programme, the Union Fertiliser and Chemicals Ministry said on Tuesday.

The company has supplied DDT with 75 per cent water-dispersible powder to South Africa. It is in the process of supplying 128 tonne of DDT to Zimbabwe and 113 tonne to Zambia in the current 2020-21 fiscal, it said.

It may be noted that HIL is the sole manufacturer of DDT globally. The company was incorporated in the year 1954 to manufacture and supply DDT for the government''s malaria control programme.

"HIL (India) Limited, a PSU under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, supplied 20.60 tonne of DDT to South Africa for its Malaria control program yesterday," the ministry said in a statement.

South Africa''s Health department will be utilising DDT in three provinces adjoining Mozambique. The region is highly affected with Malaria and has reported maximum morbidity and mortality due to the disease in recent years, it said.

The ministry said that even the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends DDT as one of the efficient Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) chemicals to curb malaria mosquito menace and it is widely used by Southern African countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, etc and India.

Spraying of insecticides inside the human habitants i.e. Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) has proven to be an effective mosquito control tool.

Stating that malaria continues to be one of the major public health problems globally, the ministry said that in 2018, an estimated 228 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide and most malaria cases and deaths (93 per cent) were reported from African Region. In the South East Asia Region, India accounts for the majority of cases and death.

During the last fiscal 2019-20, HIL had supplied DDT to 20 states within India and also exported the product to many African countries.

Recently, the company exported 25 tonne of Malathion Technical to Iran under Government-to-Government initiative for the Locust Control Programme and also exported 32 tonnes of agrochemical-fungicide to Latin American region, the ministry added.