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Declaring health emergency not enough
Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)
December 04, 2008

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Introduction

The outbreak of cholera in epidemic proportions has brought Zimbabwe back to the attention of the region and the world. Zimbabwe's complex emergency, which is now causing so much suffering, taking lives and breaking the society apart at its seams, has been several years in the making. A key factor in creating a perfect environment for the breeding and spread of the cholera bacterium has been the neglect of essential services by the ZANU PF government over the years. But this has only been one effect of complete mismanagement and deliberate disregard for the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans.

ZANU PF rule has brought a decline in basic standards of living for many years now; but in the months while Robert Mugabe has clung to power in the face of rejection by the people at the polls in March this year, the downward spiral has changed into a precipitous plunge.

In August this year, just when the first cases of cholera were being reported in Harare and Chitungwiza, WOZA undertook research designed to present a picture of the living standards of our members in Harare-Chitungwiza and Bulawayo. Some of the results of that study are now available, and present a stark demonstration of the circumstances, which have provided the backdrop for the cholera epidemic.

Water and sanitation

Cholera thrives where there is inadequate provision for sanitation and inadequate supplies of pure water for household use such as drinking, cooking and bathing. The germs breed in human faeces and are spread through ingestion, when contaminated water or foods are used. Thus, it spreads easily where a sewage system is not functioning and raw sewage is present, or people are forced to defecate on the ground when toilets are blocked. The absence of purified water has also become a critical factor in the spread of cholera in the urban areas of Zimbabwe.

The results of WOZA's survey highlight all of these problems in relation to water and sewage. The survey sampled just over 1,000 of WOZA's members from Bulawayo, Harare and Chitungwiza. Of these, virtually all depend on their city council for water. 31% stated that they usually get their water from a council tap inside their house, while 62% use a council tap outside their house; 5% use a public tap, and 1% a borehole. 50% use a borehole sometimes (mainly in Bulawayo where many boreholes were drilled in response to recurring drought conditions in previous years) - suggesting that half are forced to use a borehole when the water is not flowing in the tap. 97% stated that they have experienced water cuts, with 60% having gone for a week or more without water. This masks some who have gone for much longer, many for weeks and months.

Of those surveyed, only 6% said they usually had access to clean water, while 77% sometimes had such access, and 16% never did. Obviously, during the time of water cuts residents are at serious risk as they seek water from sources other than their taps. However, what is not clear from the statistics, because residents cannot know the facts from day to day, is that even when water is present, it has rarely been treated with all the chemicals required to make it safe.

The other serious implication of failing water supplies is the dysfunction of the sanitation and sewage system. 88% of the respondents stated that they depend on flush toilets with, on average, 9.8 people using each toilet. 5% use a pit latrine and 4% a Blair toilet. When the water is cut off for days or weeks at a time, toilets do not function. Even when the water is on, the frequency of cuts means that the pipes have become clogged, resulting in many leaks and breaks, with sewage flowing all over. 11% of the respondents indicated that they had experienced burst sewers, which took more than six months to repair, while 23% had waited more than a month for repairs. When toilets are not working, people begin to use the bushy areas between residential suburbs as a toilet, with all that implies for attraction of flies and spread of any germs, including cholera. Such practices also have security implications as a teenage WOZA member was recently raped in Bulawayo whilst using the bush as a toilet.

In August, when the survey was conducted, 20% already reported cholera or some other form or diarrhoeal infection had affected their families during sewer bursts. Heavy rain, which began only in November, takes the human waste both over the ground and down to the underground water table while many people are looking for useable water in shallow wells; it then becomes clear that contaminated water is the norm.

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