Media and health crisis campaigns
HARARE has ambitious plans to transform itself into a world-class city by 2030. The city is hoping to emulate the success of other global metropolises such as Vienna, Sydney, London and New York in seven years.
For about a decade, Harare City Council has been telling us that it is working towards achieving world-class city status by 2030.
However, evidence on the ground shows the city may as well achieve primitive city status well before 2030. Diseases such as cholera and typhoid, which regularly plague the capital, are a sign of primitivity. These diseases were prevalent in Europe and the Americas in the 19th century, during the Industrial Revolution, when people flooded towns in search of jobs.
The population explosion collapsed the fragile sewer infrastructure. This led to raw sewage and litter overflowing on the streets in scenes akin to present-day Harare.
Raw sewage and mounds of uncollected garbage mark Harare’s environs, creating fertile breeding ground for rats and flies, triggering cholera and typhoid outbreaks.
Last week, Government announced plans that sounded like decisive measures to deal with cholera in the city.
Unlike in past episodes of cholera outbreaks, the present epidemic has been marked by remarkable general malaise by the public and dragging of feet by the city authorities.
The media was obligated to put pressure on health authorities to act sooner but for the longest time, it carried on as if cholera was just another minor health scare, instead of a fullblown epidemic that has the potential to swiftly wipe out entire communities.
There was no urgency or pressure in the reporting and coverage.
During past cholera epidemics, the media was one institution that compelled health authorities to take decisive action.
Usually, as a result of pressure from the media, water reticulation would be quickly improved, litter dumps cleared, illegal street food vending stemmed and strong powerful media campaigns rolled out.
In the 1990s, dedicated strong media campaigns were the ones that changed the prevailing poor sanitation and hygiene cultures. Before the cholera epidemic of the early 90s, people sitting down to eat used to all wash their hands in the same dish of water.
However, so powerful and effective were the media campaigns that they effectively educated people into the present culture of using running water for handwashing.
During past epidemics, broken sewer pipes that troubled high-density suburbs for months were repaired within hours of suspected cholera making headlines.
Mounds of uncollected litter would disappear like magic all over the city, but this time, it is just business as usual. Litter, raw sewage and flies continue to overrun Harare’s landscape.
Public gatherings used to be decisively controlled during such times, but now the authorities only pay lip service.
The presence of cholera or the suspicion of it usually triggered better health services management as senior health authorities swung into immediate decisive action.
During past epidemics, politicians usually tripped over each other, curiously dressed in overcoats and gumboots, to visit cholera patients and grab photo opportunities for publicity. That was actually useful because it helped raise awareness and direct attention to the crisis.