admin
Talent Gore
ABOUT 80 percent of the 90 cholera cases recorded in Harare yesterday were in Kuwadzana.
According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care’s daily situation analysis, Harare recorded 90 new cases while Chitungwiza recorded 26 cases.
Health and Child Care Minister, Dr Douglas Mombeshora, visited Kuwadzana with other officials, and identified a lack of safe drinking water and low pumping capacity from the Morton Jaffray system as contributory factors.
The group also witnessed worrying conditions, including faecal matter flowing on the streets, according to Dr Mombeshora.
The Government is planning to ban illegal food vending on the streets and long-term plans to deal with cholera are also being considered.
The situation is deemed “out of hand”, with more than eight deaths from the disease recorded so far.
“What brought us here in Kuwadzana and Crowborough is the increase in the number of cholera cases being recorded.
“We had 90 cases in Harare, and 80 percent of those new cases came from Kuwadzana and during this tour there are quite a number of things that we have seen which are responsible for this outbreak.
“First and foremost, there is not enough safe drinking water, there is low capacity of Morton Jaffray pumping station, load shedding has caused some challenges,” he said.
Minister Mombeshora added that boreholes were contaminated and water pipes are now too old.
“We have visited some houses where actual sewer was flowing through their rooms.
“These are very worrying conditions so we came out here to witness what’s on the ground. There is faecal matter which is flowing in the streets and this will go to Lake Chivero posing a danger to Harare residents.”
“We want to work together with the City of Harare and map a way forward. We have short and long term plans on how to deal with cholera.
“When it comes to the short term plans, we want to ban all illegal food vendors in the streets and to provide safe water.
“We urge the City of Harare to respond immediately to issues to do with burst sewers because we heard some families saying they went for a week, and some even a month without getting attention from the council.”
Online Reporter