Harare Residents Warn Of Cholera Risk Due To Water Challenges And Shortages

Harare residents have expressed concern over the water challenges in the city and warned that Harare is at risk of another cholera outbreak as the water situation has reached a crisis level, with many suburbs going without water for over a week.

The director of the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA), Reuben Akili, emphasized that the water crisis is particularly worrisome as the hot season, known for water challenges and waterborne diseases, approaches. He said:

In our view, the issue of water crisis which is happening when we are getting into the hot season which is characterised by water challenges and waterborne diseases is worrisome.

Hardlife Mudzingwa, the director of the Community Water Alliance, accused the authorities of only treating the symptoms of the problem instead of addressing the root cause. Mudzingwa said:

Despite cholera cases in Harare, the priority of the government from national tier to lowest tier (local authority) has been on treating symptoms of the problem rather than addressing the root cause.

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Precious Shumba, the director of the Harare Residents Trust (HRT), criticized the local authority for failing the residents and expressed concerns that primitive disease outbreaks would persist if service delivery and attitudes remained unchanged. He said:

Primitive disease outbreaks will be with us for a long time as long as the attitude and level of service delivery remains as it is. We fear that the approaching rainy season will worsen the situation for residents.

Rudo Chikodzore, the director for epidemiology and disease control in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, stated that they had a strategy in place to save lives, which had been successful in reducing the case fatality rate in Harare province during the recent cholera outbreak. Chikodzore said:

This has been successful in Harare province as seen by a low case fatality rate of 0,4% for the metropolitan province despite a high number of cholera cases in the just ended cholera outbreak.

This year, the cholera outbreak initially started in Chegutu in February and then spread across the country, with Harare reporting 1,616 suspected cases so far.

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