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Govt plays down diarrhoea outbreak
The Standard (Zimbabwe)
January 13, 2008

http://allafrica.com/stories/200801140512.html

View CHRA's recent statement on this issue

THE Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) has accused the government of playing down the outbreak of diarrhoea in many city suburbs.

According to the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, more than 400 cases have been recorded in Mabvuku and Tafara, hit by an acute water shortage over the past year.

CHRA disputed this, insisting at least 15 000 may have been affected.

CHRA argues Mabvuku and Tafara, being big suburbs with large populations, could have more victims of the outbreak.

The association says its research showed the government and the council were understating the number of victims, having counted the households affected.

Some areas in Mabvuku have had no water since last March.

CHRA information officer Mfundo Mlilo says the situation in the twin suburbs was "very disturbing" because both the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) and the council had shown a lack of commitment to solve the crisis.

Mlilo said the diarrhoea outbreak was not confined to the two suburbs but to others as well, where cholera and dysentery had been reported.

These include Hatcliffe and Hatcliffe Extension, Epworth, Marlborough, Msasa, Mufakose, Budiriro, Glen View, Chitungwiza, Mbare and Hatfield, said the association.

The outbreak has been attributed to erratic water supplies by Zinwa and the failure by the council to collect garbage and repair burst sewer pipes on time.

Mlilo said: "We all knew it was going to come to this, especially in Mabvuku and Tafara.

"We wrote numerous petitions to Zinwa to bring water bowsers but they ignored us. Only a UN agency heeded our calls. This is why we have this crisis on our hands, ZINWA officials are sleeping on the job. Now a very preventable health crisis is unfolding in our city."

The Standard established during a survey that Hatcliffe has had no tap water for the past two months and residents say they have been using unprotected wells. As a result, many people had succumbed to waterborne diseases.

The situation was compounded by the use of the nearby bush by some residents to relieve themselves.

One resident said: "I am very bitter with Zinwa because they don't realise the amount of damage and disruption they have caused in our lives. Why did they take over water management if they cannot deliver it?"

Fears are growing that there could be undocumented fatalities resulting from the outbreak as one Mufakose mother's testimony suggests.

Plaxedes Mwedziwendira from Samuriwo, Mufakose, claims she lost her six-year-old daughter from diarrhoea two weeks ago. Plaxedes says she received a phone call while at work that her daughter's condition had worsened.

"My daughter was taken to hospital by my sister-in-law while I was at work and she died on admission. All of us in the family had diarrhoea, but I didn't expect my daughter to die," she said.

"She was strong and even going to the toilet on her own but they say she suddenly felt weak. She died at Harare hospital."

Samuriwo is one of the oldest and most overcrowded areas in Mufakose and raw sewage can be seen in almost every street.

An Epworth clinic nurse who spoke on condition of anonymity said they are attending to cases of dysentery and stomach problems "every day".

"People come here every day with either diarrhoea or stomach upsets. We haven't come across cholera but a few cases of dysentery. I would say that we attend to at least 10 to 15 cases of some sort of diarrhoea or stomach problems."

At Mbare clinic one nurse put the figure at 20 a day with diarrhoea complaints.

Mbare has raw sewage flowing in the streets and piles of garbage in different parts of the suburb, especially near the vast bus terminus.

Zinwa engineer Hosiah Chisango said it was not fair to blame the water authority alone for the crisis.

"Whenever there are power failures or mechanical problems in areas situated in the outer suburbs and further off the (water) source like Mabvuku, Tafara, Hatcliffe, Borrowdale and others are heavily affected," he said.

He said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) gave ZINWA $83 billion in December to help in the drilling of boreholes in Mabvuku and Tafara.

Chisango said a diarrhoea outbreak could have been caused by other factors such as uncollected rubbish in the city. Many suburbs had gone for months without rubbish being collected.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Management Agency last week summoned Chitungwiza town council to a hearing for failing to collect refuse in the town and exposing residents to disease.

The agency is empowered by the Environmental Management Act to penalise councils which ignore orders to act to prevent damage to the environment.

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