|
Back to Index
This article participates on the following special index pages:
Health Crisis - Focus on Cholera and Anthrax - Index of articles
Swift action needed to curb more cholera deaths
Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC)
November
04, 2008
The MDC is disturbed
by the Zanu PF government's failure to react swiftly to the cholera
outbreak that has led to the deaths of over 100 people in less than
a month.
Due to the Zimbabwe National
Water Authority (Zinwa) failure to supply clean water, the MDC is
surprised that the illegimate government does not care about the
lives of the people of Zimbabwe as more and more deaths are being
reported on a daily basis.
Zinwa should urgently
cede its supply of treated water to local council authorities in
order to alleviate further deaths from cholera in the country.
The MDC is alarmed that
Zinwa continues to cling to the supply of clean water in urban council
when it has failed. This has led to the deaths of over 100 people
in less than a month.
For people with a conscience
and the people's needs at heart, one would have expected the whole
of the Zinwa leadership to be looking for a quick solution to the
water crisis.
As the MDC we maintain
that Zinwa and the government should give the sole operations of
running water supplies to the MDC led council as we were given the
mandate by the people to provide them with basic social services.
It is sad to note that
the Zanu PF regime continues to fiddle while the country burns and
innocent people are dying.
Zinwa is not in a position
to maintain water and sewer equipment since they do not have hands
on engineers. All the engineers have deserted the water authority
because of poor salaries on the other hand councils can make special
provisions to retain such specialists.
Elected councillors who
enjoy the mandate of the people have the capacity to consult residents
and come up with people-driven initiatives to solve the challenges
facing the country.
Masvingo City remains
one of the few cities that have not been affected by the cholera
outbreak because the MDC led council is in control, as Zinwa has
not taken over the operations of water supply in the area.
The municipality approached
the residents who took it upon themselves to pay for the broken
down sewer system and this reduced to zero the amount of sewerage
flowing into the water bodies itself a major contributor of cholera.
Corruption and bureaucracy
in government is also a major contributing factor to cholera deaths
where Zinwa is involved in providing water supplies.
Zinwa is buying chemicals
for water treatment from third parties instead of buying chemicals
directly from the suppliers, which makes the process prone to abuse
by senior officials.
The MDC calls upon Zinwa
to take the lives of the people of Zimbabwe seriously and give back
water and sewer control to town councils.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
