Zimbabwe Cholera Crisis
Urgent Alert: Zimbabwe Cholera Crisis Explodes! 1,000+ Cases Amid Dwindling Water Supply. Stay Informed Now! 🚨 #ZimbabweCholera #WaterShortage
Recently, Zimbabwe is striving to eliminate cholera epidemic among the citizens since the country does not have potable water.
Regai Chibanda (a 46 years and old man with five kids), in Chitungwiza Township said that if the water comes at all, it’s usually
In cradled and unclean conditions, the most dangerous infection is cholera – an acute diarrheal condition that develops after consumption of food or drinking water infected with Vibrio cholerae bacteria.
The grim reaper that is chasing this southern African nation nowadays claimed over four thousand lives between 2008 and 2009 during the time when the people were frantic and turbulent.
This was representative of the implosion of political and economic crisis when hyperinflation reached 80 billion percent, and ushering in a historic coalition government which eventually dealt with the situation.
Inflation now threatens the existence of many people while cholera attacks children whose parent(s) are busy working or running errands since it became too hot for them to be outdoors.
Secondly, the outbreak started back in February. As of October last year, official figures from the Public Health and Child Care Department are documenting almost six thousand cases and about hundred suspected deaths.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose disputed polls of August won him a second term, has vowed a nationwide drilling of boreholes.
Solar-powered water points should be established to supply drinking water to approximately 35,000 villages lacking such services.
When it comes to supplying water in Harare the capital, some resident could go without water from Harare City Council’s supply from time of weeks, even up to months.
About 50 deaths from cholera were recorded in Chitungwiza, a satellite town under Harare during end of October.
Chitungwiza is a city unto itself due to its size and population. However, its water works and civil planning systems are poorly developed and are barely keeping up with an expanding population and the outflow from the villages into the city that is constantly seeking work.
As for the issue of water, it is not good in the township of Chitungwiza. Each year, many individuals suffer from cholera, he explained while noting that he travels by car daily to central Harare where he works as a printer. He said he heard about at least a dozen death in his neighborhood.
Residents in our county have no good water; therefore they buy bottled water to sustain their lives but this has a great impact on their financial status.
In Manicaland’s eastern highlands, out in Mutare, the principal city, it is also the same sad tale – more cholera cases and a city that has difficulties providing even the barest essentials such as clean drinking water.
Social media is full of cholera information alerts, though a comment earlier this month on the health ministry’s Facebook page from a resident in the southern city of Bulawayo summed up the predicament for most: “What is this thing called? How do we clean our bodies if there is no running water in Bulawayo (for almost 2 weeks)?”
Cholera is a disease that can be easily treated using salt re-hydration solution, and prevented by people having access to clean water & sanitation, simple as that!
Last week, I spoke to Panashe Chawa, a Harare pharmacist who has revealed that his caseload has been increasing and he nowadays attends to two or three cases per day involving children and adults all presenting with the typical cholera symptoms.
Mr Chawana however said “if it was not for public announcements, Harare could have experienced even more”. He explained “only because people recognized what was happening with their bodies and matched the symptoms with an unpurified water- that is when they sought medical help.””.
We, therefore, advise them to watch out for white matter on their feces and administer, among other drugs, the antibiotic Azithromycin as a whole fewer people enter the hospital.
However, Mercy Corps, while seeking funds for boreholes said it may be taking long before they improve.
However, there was a drastic decrease in cases recorded from July through August, which has unfortunately been reversed by an alarming increase of cholera cases, mainly affecting women and children. In Manicaland, majority depend on sharing ablution facilities which are congested while others opt
Mike Ryan, the head of emergencies for the World Health Organization, described cholera as “a poster child of poverty, social injustice, climate change, and conflict” a few days ago.
It is difficult to determine which of these may be directly attributed to President Mnangagwa’s administration, but the documented instances of cholera suggest that there may not have been enough effort or willingness to stop the outbreaks by supplying clean water.
Water is a visual reality in the southern suburbs of Harare.
Water is shared by those having borehole equipped community centres and churches, who wheel-carts of barrows across many roads to them.
Critics argue there are inequalities when it comes to investment by the government on pure water reserves as compared to water for drinking purposes. In this case, people with money are able to dig boreholes in their backyards yet majority of residents lack such basic amenities.
The town’s city councils comprising of opposition, attribute this to lack of investment by the government in purchase of new equipment, kit and cleansing agents necessary to cleanse the water.
The fact that the government is constantly taken by surprise speaks volume on the pathetic expenditure on waterworks of both urban and rural settings.
Shumba, who is the director at the Harare based residents trust which is a non-governmental organization, that water outage situation in the city has become worse compared to last year, made it clear that the government should provide sufficient support for the council.
He told Zimbabwe’s The independent, “local authorities cannot sustain service delivery from rate payers alone,” referring to pipes replacement and chemicals.
In the paper, the city of Harare lost about $3 million per month due to water-treating chemicals.
Additionally, Mr. Shumba mentions that industrial waste and effluents have been thrown untreated into the tributaries and streams draining to Lake Chivero which supplies the major water source for Harare.
They organise waste collection in richer parts of the capital using community groups – while streets are turning into piles of trash everywhere else because the government no longer organises it.
The clouds are expected to come with the rains and this makes most fear that there might be too much dirt around. This could signify a possible comeback since cholera is known to breed on the puddles.
They are still fighting to prevent their toddlers from getting near water faucets or puddles and from having to go through the daily ordeal of determining what is and isn’t safe to drink.
