Let’s avoid another cholera outbreak

which claimed more than 4 000 lives is still fresh in people’s minds.
The major cause of outbreak of cholera or typhoid is poor sanitation. It is therefore crucial especially with the onset of the rains to ensure high standards of hygiene are maintained to avoid a repeat of the 2008 outbreak that claimed innocent lives.
Reports that there is a suburb in Bulawayo where garbage has not been collected for the past five years are very disturbing indeed.
According to a story carried in this paper yesterday, garbage in some parts of Cowdray Park suburb has not been collected for the past five years. This was revealed by the councillor for the area, Clr Collet Ndlovu, at a full council meeting last Wednesday.
Clr Ndlovu, we want to believe, had exhausted all channels to push city council workers to service his area hence he decided to report the matter to full council. What is however mind boggling is that refuse has not been collected for the past five years yet the area is represented by a councillor. What message are we getting from this disclosure by Clr Ndlovu? Is he telling us that he cannot, as a councillor, rein in council workers? We wonder what the Department of Health Services is doing if it fails to collect refuse for five years.
The council has no excuse for failing to service this area for that long. We understand the challenges that the city council like any other local authority is facing but that cannot justify neglecting an area for that long. Are the residents of these sections of Cowdray Park suburb not paying refuse collection fees every month?
Council is committing a criminal act by exposing residents of this part of the city to a health hazard. It is the obligation of the local authority to ensure refuse is collected regularly as part of measures to maintain high hygienic standards in the city. Responding to Clr Ndlovu’s appeal to have these sections of the suburb serviced by the council, the mayor Clr Thaba Moyo said the area had Hlalani Kuhle houses which were not in the council’s plans hence the area was not being serviced. Clr Moyo said the council was against the housing scheme in the first place because the houses were built on unserviced land.
The mayor’s response unfortunately does not help the situation. The fact that the houses were built on unserviced stands is now water under the bridge. The reality on the ground is that we have Bulawayo residents residing in this part of the suburb and therefore generating garbage which must be collected by the council.
Clr Ndlovu said the residents took the initiative to construct roads so that refuse trucks could access the area. What Clr Moyo as the city father should appreciate is that in the event of a cholera outbreak, it will not be confined to Hlalani Kuhle houses but will spread to other sections of the suburb and eventually the whole city.
Clr Moyo’s council cannot be allowed to deliberately put the lives of residents at risk just because the council is opposed to a central Government housing scheme. Local authorities are supposed to complement central Government so opposing Government programmes is not the way to go.
Councils are there to serve the people regardless of one’s political affiliation and to advance political interests at the expense of serving residents is dereliction of duty of the highest order that deserves severe punishment.