Above: Less than a year into the New Deal, and FDR and Harry Hopkins had armies of CWA workers fighting mosquitoes and malaria, such as this battalion of men in Arkansas making a drainage ditch to empty a swamp, marsh, or other area of standing water, 1933-1934. Photo from the FDR Presidential Library and Museum.
Above: WPA workers building a mosquito control drainage ditch in Sulphur Springs, Texas, between 1935 and 1943. Photo from the National Archives.
Above: WPA workers placing sod along the side of a mosquito drainage ditch in Laurel, Mississippi, June 1938. Photo from the National Archives.
Above: The description for this WPA photograph--taken in Ayden, North Carolina, October 1936--reads: "Swift Creek Drainage and Malaria Control Project. This picture shows the main drainage canal. When finished it will be 30 miles long, with 10 miles of lateral ditches." Photo from the National Archives.
Above: A WPA-improved mosquito drainage canal in Southington, Connecticut, between 1935 and 1943. Photo from the National Archives.
Above: A WPA farm-to-market road near Meridian, Mississippi, June 1938. In 1956, the Mississippi Board of Health recalled how malaria was finally crushed in their state. Among many other things, it credited WPA drainage work, including the improved drainage along the sides of WPA farm-to-market roads ("How Mississippi Wiped Out Malaria," St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri), November 24, 1956, p. 4A). Photo from the National Archives.
Above: The description for this photograph, taken May 1938, reads: "Augusta, Ga. - The Augusta Levee built by the WPA. Protects the city from flood waters" (notice the WPA sign near the top of the levee). Malaria was prevalent in Georgia "and until the 1930s the disease was endemic in the [other] southern states" too ("Malaria," New Georgia Encyclopedia, accessed June 28, 2026, emphasis added). Flood control projects--which the New Deal had thousands of--helped mitigate malaria by preventing areas of standing water that are left behind by floods. Photo from the National Archives.
Above: This article highlights the malaria concerns that are caused by floods. It comes from the United Press, in the The Washington Daily News (Washington, DC), April 18, 1935, p. 3. Image from newspaper.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.
Above: A beautiful wastewater treatment plant building in Atlanta, Georgia, courtesy of the New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA), between 1933 and 1941. New Deal storm sewers, sanitary sewers, and wastewater treatment plants helped reduce disease in America, but the mosquito that carries malaria, Anopheles, prefers relatively clean water for breeding, so these types of public works probably had less impact on malaria than they did on other diseases. Photo from the National Archives.
Above: Another way of controlling mosquitoes and malaria during the 1930s was spraying a kerosene solution on top of stagnant or slow-moving water, as this WPA worker is likely doing. This created a film that suffocated the larvae. Though not as bad as some other products, such as Paris Green and, eventually, DDT (products that typically take much longer to breakdown in the environment), the solution can still be dangerous to non-target species, is no longer considered ideal, and is rarely used in the U.S. today. Photo from the WPA's Report on Progress of the Works Program, October 15, 1936.
Above: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) carried out a lot of mosquito and malaria control projects too, which was important since the TVA's massive dam projects slowed the flow of water (but also reduced flooding): "Tennessee River, Alabama... Spraying the banks of the Tennessee River to destroy mosquitoes which carry malaria," 1942. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, Farm Security Administration; photo and description from the Library of Congress.
Above: "Tennessee River, Alabama (Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)). At dawn, plane spreads insecticide on Tennessee River to destroy malaria-carrying mosquitoes," 1942. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, Farm Security Administration; photo and description from the Library of Congress.
Above: The New Deal funded much science and research to address the nation's mosquito and malaria problem, such as this lab project in Kentucky, 1934-1935, employing formerly jobless women. Photo from the final report of the Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA).
Above: One of the many New Deal or New Deal-assisted surveys, studies, and research related to mosquitoes and malaria. This summary comes from: Works Progress Administration, Index of Research Projects, Volume I, 1938, p. 197.
Above: "Public health doctor giving tenant family medicine for malaria, near Columbia, South Carolina," ca. 1939. It's unclear what agency this doctor worked in, but the New Deal helped fund health agencies at all levels of government (see, e.g., discussion of Social Security, Title VI below). Photo by Marion Post Wolcott, Farm Security Administration; photo and description from the Library of Congress.
Above: One of the many articles one can find in newspaper archives from the late-1930s and early-1940s, highlighting major drops in malaria cases and deaths. This article is from the Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi), June 1, 1942, p. 10. Image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.
Above: Modern articles about malaria often downplay or overlook the role of the New Deal in its eradication (see, e.g., "The US eliminated malaria in 1951. How can it keep it under control now?" CNN, August 19, 2023). However, the chart above--from Daniel Sledge and George Mohler (their article discussed below)--shows that malaria was being brought to heel well before the creation of the CDC (1946) and the widespread use of DDT (beginning in 1947) - two events that are often credited for the elimination malaria in the U.S.
The Work-Relief Ditch-Digging... That Saved Lives
Between 1933 and 1942, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed 1,191 miles of mosquito control drainage ditches, and maintained another 685 miles (final report of CCC Director James McEntee, p. 107).
Between 1933 and 1934, the Civil Works Administration (CWA), in conjunction with the U.S. Public Health Service, built over 6,000 miles of mosquito control drainage ditches (annual report of the U.S. Surgeon General, fiscal year 1934, pp. 6, 58-59).
The Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), constructed 7,045 miles of new drainage ditches and improved another 7,725 miles (Work Division's final report, p. 79).
Between 1935 and 1943, WPA workers installed 15,268 miles of new mosquito drainage ditches and pipe, and improved another 22,572 miles of existing ditch and pipe (WPA final report, p. 132).
Other New Deal agencies carried out mosquito control work too. For example, in 1940 it was reported that 500 National Youth Administration workers would be assisting New York City's Department of Sanitation in "the mapping and extermination of mosquito breeding centers. These breeding areas are found in the 30 miles of swamp lands in New York City, and in culverts and cellars" ("NYA Assigns Youth to Mosquito Control," The Daily Worker (Chicago and New York), February 5, 1940).
Adding up CCC, CWA, FERA, and WPA work we arrive at 60,486 miles of new or improved mosquito drainage (ditches and pipe).
Work-relief ditch-digging played a significant role in the elimination of malaria and thus saved many lives: "From any perspective, the overall decline in malaria deaths in the South after 1933 is surprising. Malaria is a disease of poverty, and the rural South was hit particularly hard by the Great Depression... We argue that the decline of malaria in the South was a consequence... of federally sponsored public health interventions, most notably large-scale drainage efforts" (Daniel Sledge and George Mohler, "Eliminating Malaria in the American South: An Analysis of the Decline of Malaria in 1930s Alabama," American Journal of Public Health, Volume 103, No. 8 (August 2013), pp. 1381-1392).
The New Deal Knocked Out Malaria
In addition to ditching, draining, and spraying by work-relief crews, other components of the New Deal were busy addressing the mosquito and malaria problem too. For example, "In 1935, Congress passed the Social Security Act (SSA). Title VI of the SSA authorized federal grants-in-aid of $8 million annually for the development of state and local public health infrastructure and for the training of public health workers. Amendments to the SSA in 1939 raised this figure to $11 million... By providing a more permanent basis for malaria control through greater federal–state–county coordination, fully staffed county health departments, and money for the training of state and local public health workers, Title VI helped to both advance and solidify the gains in malaria control being made by the public works agencies" (Daniel Sledge and George Mohler, "Eliminating Malaria in the American South: An Analysis of the Decline of Malaria in 1930s Alabama," American Journal of Public Health, Volume 103, No. 8 (August 2013), pp. 1381-1392).
Another New Deal initiative that helped terminate malaria was the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), as highlighted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC): "U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill that created the TVA on May 18, 1933. The law gave the federal government a centralized body to control the Tennessee River's potential for hydroelectric power and improve the land and waterways for development of the region. An organized and effective malaria control program stemmed from this new authority in the Tennessee River valley. Malaria affected 30 percent of the population in the region when the TVA was incorporated in 1933. The Public Health Service played a vital role in the research and control operations and by 1947, the disease was essentially eliminated. Mosquito breeding sites were reduced by controlling water levels and insecticide applications" ("The History of Malaria in the United States," CDC, October 26, 2024).
It's no mere coincidence that the New Deal's immense drainage and flood control projects, wide-scale spraying of kerosene and pesticide, scientific research, funding of public health services, and, perhaps most importantly, activation of the General Welfare clause of the Constitution, immediately preceded the elimination of malaria in the United States ("By 1951, malaria was considered eliminated from the U.S." - CDC). New Deal projects, and the spirit of common good that the New Deal injected into the nation, knocked out malaria. This isn't to say that there were not many other participants in the fight against malaria; just that the New Deal steered the nation to final victory.
It's also interesting to note that malaria was not the only disease to fall victim to New Deal action: "For the following diseases, or groups of diseases, the provisional mortality rates reported during 1938 were the lowest on record: Typhoid and paratyphoid fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, poliomyelitis, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, tuberculosis, malaria, pellagra, diseases of the digestive system, nephritis, and diseases of pregnancy and childbirth. The mortality rates from influenza, pneumonia, and accidental causes were the lowest in recent years" (U.S. Surgeon General's annual report for FY 1939, p. 21).
Was the Environmental Risk Worth It?
Draining swamps and marshland, or just altering their hydrology, can reduce wetland acreage, and wetlands are ecologically important. The spraying of kerosene--when done without proper planning and care (e.g., kerosene that is not properly diluted)--can harm wildlife, plants, groundwater, and soil - although, in many situations, kerosene breaks down fairly rapidly (and much faster than, for example, DDT).
So the question arises: Was it worth it?
The first thing to consider is the size of the malaria problem in the U.S., before the New Deal's full-scale intervention. In his FY 1934 report, the U.S. Surgeon General explained that "In each of the [fourteen] States selected for this [New Deal] work, malaria is the major public-health problem in much of its territory. In the malarious sections of these States the school-child infection rate... varies from 10-60 percent, and in some places is as high as 95 percent. The effects of the infection are such that the school children not only do not make reasonable progress in their studies but are not able to put forth on an average more than two-thirds of the effort normally expected of them... In the areas affected there are approximately 2,000,000 cases of malaria each year. Although the death rate from malaria is not as high in comparison with the rates of some other diseases, it does, in a number of States, exceed the death rate for typhoid fever and causes more deaths than smallpox" (pp. 58-59).
A second thing to consider is the scope of the problem, today, outside the U.S. According to the World Health Organization, "Globally in 2024, there were an estimated 282 million malaria cases and 610,000 malaria deaths in 80 countries." (Malaria is also, of course, widely recognized as one of the deadliest diseases in history - see, e.g., Rene F. Najera, DrPH, "Which Infectious Disease Is the Biggest Killer of All Time?" The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, November 26, 2024.)
The New Deal has shielded us from quite a lot of disease and death from malaria. Indeed, it's not even a thing for us anymore. Ultimately though, every individual must decide on their own whether the New Deal's methods for eliminating malaria (which were, for the most part, the accepted methods of the day) were worth it.
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