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Mbare residents exposed to contagious diseases
The Daily Mirror (Zimbabwe)
January 12, 2006

http://www.zimmirror.co.zw/daily/index.cfm?

RESIDENTS near the closed Mbare wholesale produce markets yesterday said they were living under threat of contagious diseases caused by the prevalence of flies and maggots from uncollected garbage that had become a common sight at the market.

The residents said this on the sidelines of a tour of the area by the Minister of Health and Child Welfare, David Parirenyatwa to assess the situation at Mbare Musika in light of the Cholera outbreak that has hit some parts of the country.

Harare City Council shut the bustling market on Monday to enable the local authority to clear heaps of refuse that had gone uncollected for months.

Earth moving machines from the council's department of works were removing the garbage yesterday with town clerk Nomutsa Chideya saying they wanted to complete the exercise within a week.

"Zvakaitwa nekanzuru zvakanaka. Tiri kungorarama nenyasha dzamwari. Mamwe Mazuva tinotomuka pazvivanze pachifamba makonye. (What the council did is welcome. We are surviving in these conditions by the grace of God. At times we wake up only to be greeted by worms and maggots," said Happymore Mapuzva.

He added that the maggots were coming from a section of the market where some people sell live chickens and urged council to remove the vendors from the place.

Loveness Katiyo, a mother of three from Tichagarika Flats said flies had infested the area because of the unhygienic conditions at the market.

"Besides the rotting vegetables, most of the people who do business there no longer use toilets, but just relieve themselves anywhere. The problem is that children play in some of those places and it exposes them to all sorts of diseases," she said.

A strong stench from the garbage, which was being removed, engulfed the market with the situation being worsened by the recurrent rains.

Another resident Manyara Katiyo said council should not have waited for the rubbish to gather before taking action.

"If the rubbish was being removed regularly it would not have come to this. We don't know what would have happened if there was no Cholera outbreak. They have now disturbed business for everyone here and this might result in prices of produce rising," he said.

Parirenyatwa urged council to collect refuse on time.

"If we leave things like that we are letting people down. We should help each other to clean up the place. We must collect bins on time and license people properly. We do not want another Operation Murambatsvina here," the minister said.

Council has already set up an inter-departmental committee to look at the clean up of Mbare.

Parirenyatwa said it was necessary to include officials from other ministries like agriculture, short and medium enterprises and health in the clean up exercise.

Chideya said as a temporary measure the council would level the wholesale markets after the removal of refuse and compact the ground with rubble from structures that were destroyed under Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order.

"The long term plan is to come up with satellite markets in Mabvuku, Hatcliffe and Dzivaresekwa.
We also have to take care of the drainage system here, the toilet facilities are not adequate," Chideya said.

He added that council operations were being crippled by shortages of fuel that has seen them getting 10 000 litres of fuel a month instead of between 30 000 and 40 000 a week they receive under normal circumstances.

Meanwhile, Parirenyatwa said there was no change in the number of people affected by cholera, but said the capital's Beatrice Hospital had handled nine cases of suspected cholera infections since the outbreak of the disease in December.

"At Beatrice we had nine discharges and the situation remains the same countrywide. All our hospitals are now on high alert especially at central hospitals," he added.

The diarrhoeal disease has resulted in 14 deaths while 284 have been infected so far.

Other officials on the tour included Parirenyatwa's deputy, Edwin Muguti, Harare Provincial Administrator, Musavaya Reza and council officials, among them the director of health services, Stanley Mungofa and other senior council employees

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