Diarrhoea outbreak hits Harare

Each of Harare's 60 council health centres is treating at least 15 cases of diarrhoea per day, city health director Prosper Chonzi told the state-controlled Herald newspaper. Some of the patients are suffering from life-threatening dysentery.

The real number of cases is likely to be much higher, as figures of those consulting private doctors and other government health centres were not immediately available.

So serious is the problem that city health centres have been ordered to treat diarrhoea patients for free to stop the spread of disease, the paper said.

Water supplies in some suburbs of Harare, once known as the Sunshine City, have been erratic for at least two years. Residents have to make do with buying water from those lucky enough to have wells or using untreated sources of the commodity.

Broken sewerage systems, which often lie unfixed for months, are compounding the problem.

The worst affected suburbs are the low-income areas of Hatcliffe Extension, Mabvuku, Tafara, Budiriro and Kuwadzana, which sometimes go for up to three consecutive days without running water, according to the Herald.

Chonzi said that before the onset of the water shortages, council clinics dealt with very few cases of diarrhoea.

“We have a persistent problem and have decided to continue treating all diarrhoea-related cases free of charge,” he said.

Water supply in Zimbabwe's cities has been mired in controversy since President Robert Mugabe's government ordered that water management be transferred from city councils – some of them controlled by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) – to the state-controlled ZINWA water authority
The move led to an outcry from many residents, who also have to contend with shortages of power, fuel, medicine and basic commodities like bread and meat.

News of Harare's diarrhoea outbreak comes just a day after a prominent doctor and ruling party supporter warned ZINWA was working hard to create an epidemic.

“The fact that people now move around with buckets looking for water to drink from burst pipes in a cosmopolitan city like Harare is a complete shame and a recipe for disaster,” Paul Chimedza wrote in the state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper.

“ZINWA is sure working hard to get its name in the Guinness Book of Records as the most useless and inefficient organisation,” he added, in unusually strong criticism from a government supporter.

And in another rare concession Monday, Environment Minister Francis Nhema admitted Zimbabwe had “messed up” the environment.

“People now realise that we messed up our environment and even the underground water which used to be safe to drink is no longer safe because we have killed the water table flows with our actions,” said Nhema, who currently chairs the UN's Commission on Sustainable Development. – DPA

Article courtesy of http://newzimbabwe.com/