THE SARDINIAN PROJECT

The following films survey the Sardinian Project (1946-1951), a major mosquito eradication campaign directed by the Rockefeller Foundation and financed mostly with Marshall Plan money. The goal was to eradicate every single malaria-carrrying mosquito across this very large and rugged island by relying largely on intensive spraying of DDT. After the five years were over, malaria had disappeared in Sardinia, but a few mosquitoes were left buzzing. Those in charge felt that if mosquitoes could be eradicated on this island, then mosquitoes might be eradicated on larger scales, even the whole world. Yet rising DDT resistance by mosquitoes and ongoing persistence of malaria elsewhere meant that this and all other mosquito-born diseases were not disappearing anytime soon.