Jamshedpur, June 29: With the arrival of monsoon, the district administration has initiated steps to prevent the outbreak of water-borne diseases, especially in the semi-urban and rural areas.

Officials in the health department said the district civil surgeon has set up nine special committees ? one in each block ? as a precautionary measure.

?Most of the remote areas in the district do not have proper access to potable water and sanitation facilities. Water-borne diseases are quite common in such places. Hundreds of patients suffering from diseases like diarrhoea and jaundice are admitted in primary health centres and nursing homes during monsoon. The situation can be very alarming,? said officials.

Civil surgeon Shiv Shankar Birua said they have sent copies of a notice to those in charge of the primary health centres in the blocks, asking them to constitute the special committees.

Each committee will comprise two doctors and four paramedical staff, whose primary responsibility is to provide assistance to patients during emergencies. The health department will give each team a saline kit, medicine and bleaching powder to purify water in the wells and make it potable.

The teams have also been instructed to supply bleaching powder to villagers so that it can be sprayed around wells and drains to make them germ-free.

Birua said the department has asked the district malaria officer to ensure that anti-mosquito medicine is sprayed in every house by July 10. ?We usually get a large number of malaria patients from the rural areas during monsoon,? he added.