Let’s Plant Again: Citronella to Community Action vs Dengue

Six deaths in Naga City. Fifteen deaths in Albay. These are not just numbers in a dengue report. Each number is a person—a child, a mother, a father, a family member whose life was lost to a disease that, in many cases, can be prevented.

As of September 15, Naga City had recorded 307 dengue cases and six deaths since January. The city declared a state of calamity on September 8. In Albay, dengue cases reached 1,785 with 14 deaths as of September 8, prompting the province to declare a state of calamity on September 10. By September 21, Albay's cases had climbed to 2,970, with 15 deaths. On September 23, the Department of Health Bicol reported that the region had been placed under Code Blue because of the continuing dengue outbreak and pressure on hospital capacity. Dengue-bed utilization had reached 107 percent as of September 17.

So I ask: What more can we do as communities?For Tabang Bikol Movement, the answer is not new. We have been here before.

TBM began working with the Department of Agriculture–Region V and community partners on citronella propagation and dengue prevention years ago. In 2018, a mass distribution involved 300,000 citronella clumps in Canaman. In 2019, another 30,000 citronella tillers were distributed to about 300 beneficiaries at Mariners in Canaman, at a time when dengue cases were rising in Camarines Sur. With DA central office support, TBM set up a building with four citronella distillation machines that the People’s Organization of Disaster Survivors (PODIS) and Ilaw ng Kababaihan now operate.

I remember the enthusiasm of communities receiving the plants. The free distribution did more than put citronella into people's hands. It encouraged families to plant more around their homes and encouraged communities to grow in common spaces. People propagated what they received. One plant could become many. Citronella you see, contains compounds such as citronellal, citronellol and geraniol with mosquito-repellent, antimicrobial and potential antiviral properties.

But the message was never simply: plant citronella and dengue will disappear. The real message was—and remains—clean, clean, clean. Clean the house. Clean the yard. Clean the street. Clean the canals. Empty containers that collect water. Search for stagnant water. Remove mosquito-breeding places.

Citronella can complement these efforts because of its mosquito-repellent properties. But it is not a substitute for eliminating breeding sites and following public-health measures. It is just one nature-based component of a broader community action. At Mariners, and in our homes, citronella is a valuable antibacterial compound we use for cleaning and mosquito repellant. We used to buy gallons of hydrosol, water waste from citronella distillation, from the community organizations that produce them.

Today, I believe it is time for another round of community action—and another round of planting. And this time, let us remember the plants that were lost.Bicol has experienced repeated flooding. Many citronella plants that families and communities planted in previous years may have been washed away, buried, damaged or simply lost. If we are serious about bringing back community-based dengue prevention, then let us regrow them.

Why not launch another coordinated distribution of citronella planting materials? Why not ask DA, LGUs, barangays, schools, colleges, civic organizations and private partners to work together again? Why not identify communities that lost their citronella plants to floods and prioritize them for replanting?

And why not make every distribution an opportunity for a much bigger campaign—planting plus cleaning, replanting plus removing stagnant water, and distribution plus education? Every barangay can identify places where stagnant water collects. Schools can organize a regular search-and-destroy activity. Households can check their surroundings. Every community organization can mobilize volunteers.

The experience of 2017 to 2019 showed us something important: when people are given a practical way to participate, they respond. A free citronella plant gave families something they could grow. But more than that, it gave communities a reason to talk about dengue, cleanliness and environmental responsibility.

Today, we need to do it again—but bigger, more coordinated and more sustained. Let us not wait until another family loses a loved one. Let us plant again.Let us regrow what the floods washed away. to make sure that the communities they left behind become safer with Citronella and more basic community-based aciton like cleaning cleaning and cleaning of our surroundings.

Appeal: Help PODIS harvest citronella this month—some for free community replanting, the rest for oil and hydrosol production. Help us regrow in communities what the floods washed away. Contact PODIS President Virginia Blaza.