adminTanaka Mahanya
HARARE Mayor, Jacob Mafume, says they are going to strictly enforce by-laws on street vendors to curb the outbreak of cholera.
He said they were responding to concerns raised by residents as to why the Council wasn’t being strict with vendors.
“Some people have been complaining that Council has not been strict on street vendors for some time now,” he said.
“We fear that diseases like cholera can affect our city and we have a responsibility to ensure that it does not happen.
“If there is an outbreak, it will cause a health crisis and we will have problems treating the disease.”
He added:
“We are dealing with outbreaks of waterborne diseases as there have been severe outbreaks of cholera in Mozambique and Malawi.
“There have also been isolated reports of the disease in South Africa and in Zimbabwe.
“We are fortunate that in Harare, we have only had one suspected case, with no confirmed cases.
“We are monitoring the situation and doing contact tracing, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions like water quality monitoring, distribution of non-food items and giving health tips.”
He said there would be a scheduled maintenance shutdown of Morton Jeffrey treatment plant to ensure that equipment installed at the station works in accordance with expectations.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter