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“At that moment I did not realise that it had a bad odour, but when I was about to take a sip, I realised that it was smelling bad. I only took one sip and failed to finish the cup because of the smell,” she added.
Mrs Dumba said since that day 14 members of her family including herself have been having severe diarrhoea.
“I strongly feel that the water was contaminated because since that day, all my children and grandchildren have been having diarrhoea.”
Mrs Dumba said the family have preferred borehole to tap water since the 2008 cholera outbreak and have never had stomach problems. She and her family have since resorted to tap water for drinking.
Another resident, Mrs Letwin Kamutanga whose 16-months-old baby is battling with diarrhoea appealed to responsible authorities to equip the polyclinic with all the needed provisions and staff.
Mrs Kamutanga said her baby, Takunda started having watery stools on the 26th and has not recovered since then. She took him to the polyclinic and on returning for a review with the boy this past Monday and was referred to Parirenyatwa Hospital for further assistance.
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“My baby is in pain. He is not eating, he is just having diarrhoea and vomiting. I returned to the clinic yesterday because his condition is not improving but was referred to Parirenyatwa Hospital,” she said.
Mrs Kamutanga said she could not go to Parirenyatwa Hospital because she did not have money to pay for associated costs such as hospitalisation. “I cannot go because I do not have money. I know children can be treated for free but with his condition I was afraid that he could be hospitalised,” she said.
Dr Chonzi said normally, borehole water is supposed to be tested for safety every week, but due to scarce resources, they were checks are carried out a monthly. Dr Chonzi said generally, cases of diarrhoea reported across Harare rise during the rainy season.
Commenting on the typhoid outbreak that hit Dzivarasekwa in November, Dr Chonzi said the outbreak has subsided and could soon be declared over.
“Typhoid cases have significantly gone down. We only received four cases over the weekend and if the trend continues, we’ll declared it over.”
Online Reporter