IN THE PRESS

FOUR people have died of cholera in Chegutu, others are being monitored after being diagnosed with the water-borne disease. There are more suspected cases and the country is on high alert.

This is an uncomfortable annual cycle.

Last year, at least six people were reported to have succumbed to typhoid and other related diseases during the same period in Harare alone.

More people, usually children, continue to succumb to unnecessary deaths every year during the rainy season.

Responsible authorities continue to dutifully avail information to the Press. Statistics are recorded and released and then we wait for the next season to come and claim a few more causalities through these preventable diarrhoeal diseases.

The challenges facing Zimbabwe in the health sector require a concerted response by all Zimbabweans and various interested international stakeholders.

This is one of the critical areas that the new Government will have to show its teeth.

The state of water and its cleanliness in Zimbabwe is at its lowest. Recently, Harare Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni advised Harare residents to exercise caution when it comes to their tap water.

Apparently, Harare tap as well as borehole water may not be fit for human consumption. Yet that is what is in on the table.

Other city fathers might not be so generous with the truth but the emergence of cholera indicates that questionable water quality might be a nationwide problem. This makes diarrhoeal diseases a stubborn reality.

As the country’s population swells, this is not being met by corresponding and adequate revamps to aging water and sanitation infrastructure throughout the country, especially in the high density urban areas.

When we sincerely say we are on high alert, those are the areas that we are supposed to attend to.