Chakari sitting on health time bomb

AT LEAST 600 artisanal miners that have invaded Tafara residential area in Chakari pose a major health threat, a Government official has said.

Lack of proper infrastructure, including toilets, is promoting open defecation, which authorities fear could breed water-borne diseases that could spread to Kadoma and Sanyati. In an interview yesterday, Sanyati district administrator Mr Amigo Mhlanga said the situation had become worrisome to Government.

“These 600 artisanal miners that invaded Tafara area in Chakari are digging into council holes that are nearly three metres deep,” he said.

“What worries most is that the area has no toilets and water facilities, exposing them to possible typhoid and cholera outbreaks.”

Mr Mhlanga said Chakari had always been a disease epicentre, hence, the need for urgent measures to avert possible disease outbreaks.

“Chakari is always prone to disease outbreaks over the past years and with the current situation, a major disease might be looming,” he said.

“I recently had a site visit; the situation is horrendous.”

Mr Mhlanga said the local clinic had no capacity to take in patients in the unfortunate case of a disease outbreak.

Government, he said, had since approached the relevant authorities to evict the artisanal miners.