Transform Zimbabwe (TZ) President Jacob Ngarivhume has challenged political leaders to stop blaming and start acting as the nation once again stands threatened by the deadly epidemics of typhoid and Cholera.
By Edward Makuzva
Addressing Journalists at the launch of the cleanup campaign last week in Glenview, Ngarivhume said health is a cutting across issue which affects all people in the country.
The community programme dubbed “Keep the city clean, stop blaming start acting was being done by TZ and partners is to be sustained over the next few months.
“Our communities as they stand are fertile ground for these diseases to thrive and our city council‘s excellent failure in service delivery, and we have garbage infested in communities and no safe water.
“Therefore the onus now rest with us, the people, to safeguard our health and our families. These are our communities, our nation and such they are our responsibility”, Ngarivhume explained.
The TZ President added the only way we can help contain it is through public education, health promotion and changing attitudes – and improving sanitation and waste management.
He said the campaign we will be targeting locations such as Ruwa, Chitungwiza, Hopley, Mbare, Budiriro and Mufakose.
Ngarivhume highlighted that as long as there is no constant supply of water to residents, we will continue to have sporadic cases of such outbreaks of typhoid and cholera in our communities.
A combination of drought, ageing infrastructure, pollution and a ballooning population makes it almost impossible for the city to adapt to a water crisis it has suffered for 15 years.
A 2014 survey by the government and international aid agencies showed the number of Harare households with access to clean drinking water and sanitation had plummeted to just below 40 percent, from 95 percent in 2009 – the fastest decline among Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces.
Last year, more than 40 people in Harare were hospitalized due to typhoid, a bacterial infection that causes fever, headaches and constipation or diarrhoea.
Health officials have been deployed to affected areas including Hopley, a sprawling township without sewers and tap water, to contain the situation and identify suspected cases.
With the water supply to some townships, such as Mabvuku and Hatcliffe, completely cut off since early December, health experts warn Harare is sitting on a time bomb.
“Untreated or poorly treated drinking water may contain traces of dangerous pathogens… that cause diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid.
