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Conrad Mupesa –Mashonaland West Bureau
PROVIDING quality health care services to communities as enshrined in the country’s Constitution remains core business for Chegutu Rural District Council (CRDC) which continues to bolster this vision by constructing clinics using devolution funds.
The council has already constructed and commissioned two new clinics in Wards 22 and 23, whose completion ended nightmares of over 40 000 villagers walking a minimum distance of 40 kilometres to access health care.
It is expected to commission Katawa Clinic in Ward 26 once all the interior equipment has been acquired.
Chegutu RDC chief executive officer, Mr Admire Machingura, said the council was now working on equipping the facility.
“Am glad to announce that Katawa Clinic that we have constructed using devolution funds is now complete,” he said. “Construction started last year and was completed late last year.
“Among other things, the facility is equipped with male and female wards, maternity wards, outpatient, and the dispensary section. We are now waiting to equip the facility with all the required equipment as it has nothing as of now.”
The clinic is expected to attend to over 10 000 people.
Katawa village head, Mr Hebert Chipiri, lauded President Mnangagwa for providing devolving the funds.
“We are grateful to the President for the devolution funds,” he said. “We now have a clinic in our area which is going to save many lives.”
Mrs Tryphine Muza, a worker from a nearby farm, said the completion of the clinic was testimony that the Second Republic meant business.
Like Mrs Muza, Ms Emily Mapondera, who is a hypertension and diabetic patient, was walking long distances for her to get to tne nearest clinic to get checked. “I don’t have a BP or glucometer testing machine, so I rely on the ones at clinics of which the clinics are far away. This new clinic is going to help me a lot,” she said.
The construction works at the state-of-the-art health facility, which is located along the Selous-Turf Road, have been completed with a perimeter fence having been installed.
Chegutu council’s social services manager, Mr Tawanda Kangai, said the construction was in line with President Mnangagwa’s vision of an upper-middle-income economy by 2030 and the National Development Strategy 1.
“All the projects that we have embarked on from the devolution funds are people-centered,” he said. “Our communities have been travelling long distances to access health care and as a council, we have been failing to meet our end.
“We are grateful to the devolution funds that have gone a long way in the procurement of building material and other expenses for the three clinics.”
Danangwe Clinic has since been commissioned, bringing excitement the villagers in Wad 22.
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The villagers showered the Second Republic with plaudits adding, the move had ended their 20-year misery of walking at least 23 kilometres to access the nearest health centre.
Chegutu council received over $60 million from its 2021 annual allocation of devolution funds, with almost half going to the construction of clinics, while the remainder was used to purchase a grader and a roller.
Ward 22 village health worker, where Danangwe Clinic was commissioned last year, Ms Lynette Munetsi, said opening the clinic brought relief to the villagers.
“Before it was opened, I used to travel over 20 kilometres to access medication that I would administer to ill patients, but I can now walk less than five kilometres to access them before helping my village,” she said.
Construction of the clinic was done by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) Inkomo Mechanised Brigade artisans, while the community availed bricks and other required manual labour.
Former Ward 22 councillor, Alderman Joseph Mashona, who organised community members to mobilise bricks towards the clinic’s construction, said they had been in the area without a proper health care facility for the past 20 years.
At least 100 people are attended to on a daily basis at the institution which also opened a maternity ward recently.
Platinum giant, Zimplats, which operates in the district, successfully installed solar energy for water pumping and lighting of the clinic and staff quarters through its cooperate social responsibility.
Online Reporter