GOVERNMENT has been accused of failing to provide funds for the purchase of water treatment chemicals to avert a water crisis in Harare and stop the spread of cholera.
Residents are going for weeks without potable water and resorting to unsafe sources such as wells at a time when the city has recorded 125 cases of cholera.
As the water crisis deepened, government has promised to provide funds for the purchase of chemicals for the immediate relief of residents to increase treated water production capacity.
Harare mayor Ian Makone, however, told NewsDay that they had been waiting for the funds.
“We are still waiting for the funds. We haven’t seen the money and it’s now been three weeks,” he said.
Makone said government owes them more than $25 billion for water and various services, making it difficult for them to operate efficiently and to curb the crisis.
Local Government minister Winston Chitando was not picking up his calls despite repeated efforts.
Makone pleaded with residents to be alert to prevent infection with cholera.
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“We are meeting up with residents and urging them to be aware that this cholera scare is just not for the newspapers, it is for real. We don’t want cholera to escalate out of control,” he said.
Deputy mayor Kudzai Kadzombe said: “As council, we are working on increasing water production and our Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital is actually ready for any case that can arise. We have our employees on standby.”
Health experts have since called on government to declare the latest cholera outbreak a national disaster.
Government has promised to drill more boreholes and come up with long-term solutions in ensuring that residents have safe potable water.
Cholera is, however, now endemic in Zimbabwe, especially Harare.
The 2008 to 2009 cholera endemic in Zimbabwe resulted in 98 585 reported cases and 4 287 reported deaths, making it the deadliest in the country’s history.
