Public health must be top priority

Harare is easily Zimbabwe’s largest city, as well as its capital and sits on the crossroads of the country, literally as it is where the major Chirundu-Beitbridge and Mutare-Plumtree highways cross.

So if there is any outbreak of any disease in Zimbabwe, infected people and contaminated produce will arrive in Harare. And that should not be a problem. All that should happen and all that did happen in the past, is that the sick person is rushed to hospital and treated and their family or hosts in the city are checked out.

But in the last few years far worse dangers lurk. A few years ago cholera went out of control in south west Harare because the council was totally unable to supply enough clean water or adequately ration more limited supplies. And so shallow wells the desperate residents dug became contaminated and people died.

Now we have an outbreak of typhoid. Something has been learned from past mistakes and there was a far better reac- tion from the health authorities and a far greater willingness by residents to seek medical advice if there were any possible symptoms and with luck the medical authorities have contained the outbreak.

But the council is moving ponderously slowly. It took the advice of public health experts and banned the vending of food from pavements and other non-tested premises.

This is an obvious step. People selling snacks on the side of the road are unlikely to have gone through all the hygiene steps to ensure the sold food is uncontaminated and those buying are unlikely to do much cleaning of hands or food before eating.

However, the council is not enforcing its ruling, or even trying to explain it to resi- dents and vendors. A ban on the dangerous vending should not even be needed. If everyone was aware of the dangers then no one would be buying such food and responsible organisations would be teaching vendors how to ensure safety and would then be lobbying the council to license and regularise these trained vendors. Other cities in Africa have done this.

Medical emergencies should not be used as an excuse to get rid of a nuisance, but must be used to take steps that ensure residents are safe.

The city has also fairly suddenly seen a near collapse in rubbish collection. This was fairly bad then improved dramatically over the last few years, reaching the stage when most people knew they had to rush out early in the morning on their collection days because the trucks were actually coming.

Then a few weeks ago the odd glitch became almost overnight a disaster and in much of the city garbage lies piled up on road sides or is disposed of in open spaces because the trucks stopped coming. All sorts of excuses have been made and the council promised action.

Now we hear the city will use ordinary trucks and hired compactors. Someone has managed to get through to the council that a dangerous medical emergency is waiting to happen unless it gets on top of the problem, but why it has taken three or more months for the council to wake up is a mystery.

The city council faces a lot of problems, some of its own making. But ensuring basic public health is its first function. In fact, the first council was simply a “sanitary board”, that developed into a municipality and then a city council.

First things are still top of the list and the council now needs to take its public health responsibilities seriously and ensure its residents are safe.