Someone must be jailed for the cholera outbreak

The government has said at least $64 million is needed to bring the outbreak under control.

Last week newly-appointed Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube even launched a crowd-funding effort to raise cash, publicising bank details on Twitter and appealing for donations.

Harare’s mayor Herbert Gomba said the city was also taking steps to contain the outbreak.

“We are doing pipe replacement. We have de-commissioned boreholes which were no longer safe,” Gomba told journalists on Wednesday.

But he acknowledged that the city was still only supplying less than a third of the city’s demand for water.

“We need new water sources and it requires one billion dollars to address the water situation adequately,” he said.

Residents in affected areas have criticised the official response to the spread of the infection that is passed on by bacteria and affects the small intestine.

“We are living in fear. The authorities are not doing enough,” said Evans Ndoro, 48, as he walked out of a local clinic where he had taken his son to receive treatment for a suspected case of cholera.

“We have a cholera outbreak here and yet they are not offering anything like disinfectants to protect the people. They are going around urging people to use sanitisers and detergents — but how many of us can afford those?”

And though Health Minister Obadiah Moyo vowed that rubbish dumps would be removed from high-risk areas of Harare, residents are unimpressed.

“There is lots of garbage that has gone for months without being collected in most of the affected areas,” added Ndoro. “The very soil that we are walking on is contaminated but the authorities don’t seem to care.”

Webster Nganunu, 29, said the outbreak showed the government was failing its citizens.

“How can we have cholera in this day and age?” he said as he queued to collect clean water from a tanker in a Harare suburb paid for by a local drinks company.

“We are all living in fear… These are deaths that could have been prevented. Some people should be jailed for this.” –AFP

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