Chronicle Editor
Bulawayo has been hit by a diarrhoea outbreak after about 60 cases were reported in Pumula North suburb over the past few days.
This comes shortly after about 157 people suffered running tummies in Tshabalala, resulting in one fatality. We are reminded of the June 2020 outbreak that sickened 2 000 and killed 13 in Luveve after human waste contaminated drinking water.
The continuing water shortage in the city as well as poor management of the little that is available are the primary causes of the recurrent outbreaks. This worries us as some suburbs are going without tap water for up to five days weekly, even longer sometimes. We are afraid that residents could continue to suffer diarrhoeal diseases as long as the city’s water supply remains unreliable.
In response to the latest outbreak, the Government ordered Bulawayo City Council to ensure that Pumula North has tap water round the clock. Since the order, the local councillor Sikhululekile Moyo told us on Tuesday, cases have been declining.
That is encouraging. We pray that the rains will continue to fall heavily so that the city’s supply dams fill up. This will encourage council to reduce or completely lift the water shedding regime.
As we await the dams to fill up and for council to ease the supply cuts, we strongly urge residents to be more hygienic in their handling of the water they consume.
Mrs Eveline Ncube of Pumula North, said her family of six was down with diarrhoea recently.
“As it is, we are relying on harvesting water from our asbestos when it is raining because of water rationing,” she said.
“We know the water is not clean, however, there is nothing we can do because that will be an easily available source of water. Despite having a timetable, the water does not return at the stipulated time and we end up going for days without it.”
Another resident, Mr Darlington Dube, said households stock up water in dirty containers as they are always busy at work.
What Mrs Ncube and Mr Dube’s families are doing is wrong — collecting rain water from her asbestos roof and consuming it unboiled and being so busy as to store water in containers they know to be dirty, and later drinking it like that.
Indeed, the primary blame is on council but residents must understand that their health is their responsibility, not council’s.
If they harvest rain water from their roofs, it is clear that that water is unclean so it is always important for them to boil it before drinking it. If they cannot do that, it is best that they use that water for other purposes, such as watering their gardens, never to drink it as it is.
Cleaning kitchen utensils is a must also. No amount of busyness must justify them not doing so because the cost of them not being smarter can be a life.
One resident highlighted that load shedding is making it difficult for them to boil their drinking water. We understand that if a household has no alternative energy source. However, as long as that household cooks, they must be able to boil their drinking water at the same time. Furthermore, many health centres in the city are distributing free water treatment tablets. We don’t think it will cost residents much if they pass through their nearest clinic, collect as many tablets as they can and use them to clean their drinking water.
So what we are saying is, yes, Bulawayo City Council has the obligation to provide potable water to residents all the time, but in the event that it fails to do so as has been happening over the past decade or so, residents have a few steps to take to ensure they do not expose themselves to diarrhoea, typhoid and other potentially fatal stomach infections.
Online Reporter