For the second time all my pet fish (that’s all I can keep in a 7th floor apartment) have inexplicably died and this time I was determined to find out what’s happening to them. It’s the water. The fish just can’t handle the quality of water. What more human beings?
The cholera epidemic is spreading fast. Our toilets do not flush and there is just no way of knowing which hands we greet daily carry the deadly bacterium with the fancy name vibrio cholerae. The disease has historically wiped out whole communities with people dying in a matter of minutes at a time. In this age when cholera has become one of the easiest diseases to cure it is an embarrassing realization that this Zimbabwe has been reduced to the ancient times when basic medical treatment was non-existent and people died needlessly from minor ailments. Some people, with their high tables and mineral water have no idea what it feels like to live in constant fear for your life. They can afford to trot from one hotel to the next, postponing the ‘talks’ over and over, while the rest of the country spirals out of control for lack of leadership.
When cholera appears in a community, it becomes essential to ensure three things: hygienic disposal of human feces, an adequate supply of safe drinking water, and good food hygiene. Dr Anderson Bonapart advises that effective food hygiene measures should include cooking food thoroughly and eating it while still hot, preventing cooked foods from being contaminated by raw foods, water, ice, contaminated surfaces and/or flies, and avoiding raw fruits and vegetables unless they are first peeled. Washing hands after defecation and particularly before contact with food or drinking water is equally important. How the hell do you ensure you always have hot food when ZESA is gone 22 hours of the day? How do you make sure your veggies are clean if you’re gonna douse them with the pungent effluent Zinwa is churning out as water? How do you make sure your hands and your neighbor’s are clean after using the toilet, when you do not have the water to flush the toilet in the first place? It is scaring the hell out of me to handle public doors and people’s hands.
Even the Herald newspaper is now admitting that the cholera outbreak is threatening to become endemic. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is reported to have ‘joined the cholera war’. Gono, predictably, has injected quadrillions, vehicles and fuel into the dysfunctional Zinwa in order to normalize water supplies and keep the cholera outbreak in check. Money and vehicles . . . that’s how he attempts to make all his problems go away. Why doesn’t somebody tell him it’s the engineers that left, not the equipment. They also required the protective clothing he conveniently overlooked. The Civil Protection Unit (CPU) has also jumped into the ruination, tasked to provide clean water mostly to the affected areas. Finally something has caught the attention of the so-called authorities. It must be that bad. But this is no smiling matter.
It’s disappointing to have to say that all these efforts are not enough. As usual, our trusted city fathers are choosing to deal with the symptoms and not the cause of the problem. So the CPU will supply Budiriro and Chitungwiza with water, but what about the rest of the country? They plan to deal with each breakout as and when it happens after lives have been needlessly lost. The RBZ will furnish Zinwa with vehicles and fuel, but who will drive them to the burst pipes and fix them? The majority of the engineers with the requisite technical know-how left eons ago because they were overworked and underpaid. The remaining ‘top’ guys will just distribute the vehicles amongst themselves to drive to and from their posh offices where none of the real work needs to be done.
The CPU has recently banned street vending as one of the measures to curb the outbreak. A widow and my favorite fruit and veg seller was raided recently. I no longer see her outside my window. I wonder what she and her two small children will do for money and sustenance, especially now that most shops demand lots of cash or forex for basic commodities…
My best friend woke up with a running stomach today. Like a lot of people he thinks its nothing and it will go away soon enough. Probably something he ate. It is infuriating and at the same time disheartening to realize you cannot convince somebody who has low personal risk perception that they may be in danger. A lot of people have already died needlessly out of ignorance. How is one expected to stay sane somebody tell me?
As the state continues to be largely negligent and indifferent, the death toll is rising while there has hardly been any proactive intensification of educational campaigns around cholera. It is an outrage. They will continue to drink mineral water and they need never shake hands with rustics from the ghetto so they are safe. Yesterday I received an SMS from the UNICEF warning people to boil drinking water. It is doubtful though that most people exposed to the illness in the crowded high-density areas own cell phones.
Meanwhile our offices are being inundated by residents from the nearby police camp. Every morning long queues snail from the lone tap located in our car park. Spouses and children of our revered uniformed forces are seen armed with buckets and jerry cans hoping to get a load of the precious liquid. None of them concerned or aware of the fact that this reduces the water pressure to the point that our toilets no longer flush. Or that there will be an enormous water bill to be paid by us the tenants of the building. Much as water is a human right and our humanity and sense of morality will not allow us to deny these residents some water, practicality also sets in to question whether we are prepared to pay the extra quadrillion for somebody else. How far are we willing to bend over backwards, watching our toilets getting clogged and smelly while all the water is eternally filling jerry cans downstairs? What of the inherent health hazards to us?
In our office we discussed what would happen if one day we just locked up our gate and tap. Well, the Zimbabweans I know would just close that chapter and embark on a new one. Probably walk some long distance to another vulnerable building, or simply find other sources of (dirty) water as long as life goes on.
One of my colleagues highlighted the very true fact that as Zimbabweans we have harbored for too long the tendency to appeal to the wrong people whenever we have problems. When our taps do not release any water, we inundate our vulnerable neighbor who either has a borehole or is simply lucky to have Zinwa supply. When the city council does not collect our garbage we simply take it to the nearest clearing in the bushy areas famously known as ‘marabu’ and dump it there in the thick of night. She asked why don’t people just go and dump it at council offices or some such government establishment? Surely with the stink right in their faces some action would be bound to take place? Why are we always so scared and how come we never think of forceful means that will get the government to act, like dumping our garbage in their yards and queuing for water there as well?
As long as rubbish is not collected, waste management and water supply is not improved and sewer lines are not de-clogged, we are on the highway to nowhere.
