Financial Gazette (Harare)
Nelson Chenga & Charles Rukuni
27 September 2008
Harare — A HEALTH disaster of unimaginable proportions looms in Harare after the water situation deteriorated even further this week, sparking fresh health concerns as an outbreak of cholera in Chitungwiza claimed two more lives this week bringing to 13 the total number of deaths so far.
The water crisis in Harare and in Chitungwiza, approximately 30 kilometres south of the capital, has reached critical levels forcing doctors and the cities' residents associations to exert pressure on government to put its house in order and avoid continued loss of lives.
Faced with severe shortages of foreign currency required to import water purification chemicals and spares to repair the ageing water infrastructure, the government has all but admitted it does not have the capacity to deal with the problem.
The confusion over Cabinet appointments has not helped the situation.
The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) this week said a serious health crisis looms in urban areas owing to the severe shortage of running water.
Failure by the state-run Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) to treat and pump adequate supplies of water has left most urban homes dry and forced residents to rely on unsafe sources of water.
This, coupled with a breakdown in the sanitation system (burst sewage pipes and lack of refuse collection and proper disposal) is threatening the health of millions of Zimbabweans at a time when the health delivery system is least prepared to deal with any major outbreak of diseases due to the brain drain and the shortage of drugs.
Water and sanitation experts, including the few engineers left at ZINWA, have warned of the impending health and environmental crisis but their appeals have fallen on deaf ears.
ZINWA has since admitted it has not been treating the more than 300 megalitres of waste produced in the capital, which is simply being discharged into Harare's main source of raw water, Lake Chivero.
The untreated waste water has contaminated more than half of Lake Chivero. As a result the water treatment bill has spiked to such levels that ZINWA is now unable to procure the enormous amount of chemicals needed to treat the murky Chivero water for safe human consumption.
Water experts have also said the treatment of Harare water has become complicated because the waste water discharges were highly contaminated with industrial toxins, which need complex methods to remove, thus exposing consumers to health complications other than cholera.
"The new government must address this crisis as a matter of urgency. It is a matter, which cannot wait for resolution of differences or 'sticking points'. Public service provision has been inadequate for several years and requires urgent and comprehensive remedial action," said ZADHR.
The association told The Financial Gazette this week that access to safe drinking water and to adequate sanitation are basic human rights and not privileges.
"They (access to sanitation and water) are determinants of health, which if not made available can result in outbreaks of diarrhoea, cholera and dysentery that are life threatening.
"Lives have already been lost to cholera in Chitungwiza and health centres in Harare and Bulawayo are burdened by numerous cases of diarrhoea on a daily basis. It is highly likely that the number of deaths in Chitungwiza, currently reported at 13 individuals, is much higher, and that this is but the tip of an iceberg of much more morbidity. This has not been communicated to the public," said the association.
Outbreaks of cholera at any time are symptomatic of serious structural problems within the system of public works. They are more common when rains have resulted in flooding or overload of drainage systems.
An outbreak in the middle of the dry season is particularly disturbing.
This week Health Minister David Parirenyatwa urged urbanites to be on high alert in the wake of the outbreak of cholera in Chitungwiza.
"I would like to urge those who might be experiencing watery diarrhoea, vomiting and rapid severe dehydration to quickly report to any clinic," the daily Herald quoted the Minister as saying.
But the association of doctors yesterday said it was not good enough for the Health Ministry to respond to disease outbreak only after it has occurred.
"It is paramount that it (Ministry of Health) works in conjunction with other ministries concerned, such as that responsible for water resources, and ZINWA, to ensure that disease is prevented and that Zimbabwean's right to the highest attainable state of physical and mental well being is respected," it said.
Meanwhile, water problems have once again come to the fore in Bulawayo following reports that staff from ZINWA who are supposed to maintain boreholes at the Nyamandlovu aquifer, one of the city's lifelines, have abandoned the site.
The council only has 20 months of water supply left and has been banking on rehabilitating boreholes at Nyamandlovu. The council had asked ZINWA to allow it to lease an agreed number of boreholes, which the council would maintain but ZINWA has refused to commit itself.
The council says it has the spare parts and the staff to maintain the boreholes as well as well-wishers who are prepared to fund the operations.
ZINWA, which was allowed technically to take over water supplies in the city but never did so, is reported to have lost a lot of its staff. Its maintenance team at Nyamandlovu was reported to have left the site.
The parastatal has been facing persistent cash shortages with staff going for months without pay.
The mayor Clr Thaba Moyo was concerned about the latest development because the council could not rehabilitate the boreholes without consulting ZINWA because it owned the boreholes.
Bulawayo has been facing perennial water problems because its supply dams are now too small for the city of more than one million people. No new dam has been built for the city over the past 30 years.
The city was looking forward to the Zambezi Water Project but it has also been bogged down by bureaucracy and lack of funds.
Some city residents have been querying how the project will proceed now that its chairman, Dumiso Dabengwa, is out of mainline politics.
Dabengwa left ZANU-PF to join Mavambo Project before the March elections and has since abandoned the project.
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