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Harare to ration water in wealthy suburbs as typhoid cases rise
Tererai Karimakwenda, SW Radio Africa
February 01, 2012

http://www.swradioafrica.com/2012/02/01/harareto-ration-water-in-wealthy-suburbs-as-typhoid-cases-rise/

The City of Harare announced drastic measures on Tuesday in an effort to contain the Typhoid outbreak threatening the capital, including water rationing for the wealthy suburbs and the closure of all water holes dug up by desperate residents in the poor areas.

At a press conference Tuesday, town clerk Tendai Mahachi said the poor townships would receive uninterrupted water supplies to help eliminate typhoid. He said wealthy areas would be provided water about twice per week. Mahachi is quoted as saying: "the wealthy can afford to buy water" and cope with outages.

Health Minister Dr. Henry Madzorera told the reporters that an average of 30 to 50 cases of typhoid were being reported daily and more than 1,500 had been treated by the end of December last year. Fortunately, no deaths have been reported so far.

"Most boreholes have been noted to be contaminated and reticulated water has also failed the quality test in some instances. So I urge you if you are going to drink Harare water, boil it," Dr. Madzorera said.

The minister confirmed also confirmed a long known fact that the poor water and sanitation infrastructure in the city is to blame for the water borne diseases that keep cropping up. Food being sold by street vendors has also been found to be contaminated.

Typhoid symptoms include a sustained fever, headache, malaise, anorexia, constipation or diarrhoea in adults or a non productive cough in the early stages of the illness. Another waterborne disease, cholera, killed an estimated 4000 people when it swept through the capital in 2008. At least 100,000 people were affected.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti last week announced that $40 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be used to repair the water and sewage infrastructure. It is not clear how soon those funds will be available.

The Mugabe regime has clearly neglected the infrastructure since independence and the problem has now reached crisis proportions. Dr. Madzorera said: "The same poor water and sanitation conditions in Harare prevail in most of our urban areas and other parts of the country."

A tent erected at Kuwadzana Polyclinic to cater for Typhoid patients

And instead of offering solutions, some ZANU PF officials were reportedly quoted in the state media blaming the British government for the typhoid outbreak.

No specific reasons were reportedly given for the claims, but Madzorera immediately dismissed the comments, saying "there is need to remedy the situation".

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