Back to Index

Dry Bulawayo hit by diarrhoea outbreak
Henry Makiwa, SW Radio Africa
September 25, 2007

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news250907/drybyo250907.htm

Bulawayo's water crisis has continued to worsen following revelations Tuesday that Zimbabwe's second largest city has been hit by a diarrhoea outbreak.

New figures released by Bulawayo's authorities indicate that the city has recorded 431 diarrhoea cases since the beginning of this month, up from 350 diarrhoea and two dysentery cases in August. The outbreak has been attributed to the acute water shortages that are aggravating the health problems of the city's 1.5 million residents.

Bulawayo Mayor, Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube, insisted Tuesday that the council is making "every effort" to ensure those who have contracted diarrhoea receive treatment, and he took a swipe at government for neglecting the city.

Ndabeni-Ncube said: "We are hoping to avoid cholera because its difficult to control, but as of now we are doing everything to contain the diarrhoea cases. The situation is critical and as water levels deteriorate, residents will be getting water once in every eleven days, and we expect that to happen as from the beginning of October.

"The main bone of contention between us and government is that they want to impose ZINWA (the Zimbabwe National Water Authority - to run the city water management system) on us but we refuse. Our people have worked hard to earn and own the city's water management system and it is also the source of 40 % of council's revenue, so we can't give it up.

Government will not assist us in any way, they don't give us any grants, let alone loans, so we will rather go it alone," he said.

Stringent water rationing has been introduced in a bid to make the contents of the fast-dwindling dams last until the onset of the expected rains in November, but the council acknowledges that the poor inflows of water into the southern city's reservoirs has led to an increase in waterborne diseases.

The city's authorities announced in the state-run Chronicle newspaper Tuesday that they have cut the bowser water supply to schools from 4 000 litres per day to 1 000 litres, citing "abuse of the facility by some learning institutions".

This comes as the water shortage continues to worsen with some suburbs going for up to three weeks without running water.

Some residents are resorting to fetching water from unprotected sources, hence the diarrhoea outbreak that has hit Bulawayo.

Residents in the city have been extremely tolerant in dealing with the crisis. One resident reported how a bowser had gone to be refilled and the people had gone away, but left a one kilometre line of colourful buckets snaking across a dusty playing field, waiting for the bowsers return.

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