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TYPHOID DRIVEN BY CORRUPTION AND MISMANAGEMENT

Mfundo Mlilo

Typhoid Driven by Corruption and Mismanagement 

By Byron Mutingwende

A combination of corruption and gross mismanagement on the part of the government and local authorities has led to the outbreak of typhoid, civic organisations have said.

This emerged at a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) on Monday, January 6, 2017 held in Harare.

The meeting was a culmination of CHRA’s engagement with various civic society organizations and State actors following the typhoid outbreak in Harare that has so far claimed two lives since December 2016.

Various civic society organisations that included the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR), Chitungwiza Residents Trust (Chitrest), the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA), Vendors Initiative for Socio-Economic Transformation (VISET) and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) made presentations on the poor state of affairs in Harare.

The organisations challenged the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission to act and prevent needless loss of lives arising from poor service delivery in Harare.

CHRA Chief Executive Officer, Mfundo Mlilo blamed erratic water supplies and poor waste management for the typhoid outbreak in Harare. He added that as a result of the allocation of housing stands on wetlands, residents had been exposed to flooding.

Mlilo said it was imperative for residents to stand up and hold the City of Harare to account.

“People have accepted that this is the norm and no one is taking about the deaths coming as a result of poor service delivery in Harare. As civil society organizations, we are concerned about this and one of our resolutions is to engage state actors so that we find a lasting solution. We believe the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission has a role to play in holding the Harare City Council as well as other local authorities to account,” said Mlilo.

Dzimbabwe Chimbga from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said that the dire situation in Harare called for urgent state intervention.

“There is an obligation on the part of the State to ensure that some of these things do not happen Section 44 of the Constitution is clear that there is an obligation on all arms of the government to ensure that human rights are protected,” said Chimbga.

The Harare City Council has come under fire for its misplaced priorities amid revelations that of the $13 million the local authority is collecting monthly, $9 million is going towards salaries while $1 million is going towards service delivery.

Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) Executive Director, Itai Rusike said that as long as the water crisis in Harare is not addressed, residents will continue to be exposed to diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

“The causes of the 2008 outbreak have not been addressed and the main reason for the typhoid outbreak is the unavailability of water. People are resorting to alternative sources of water which are not very safe,” said Rusike.

Community Water Alliance Programmes Manager Hardlife Mudzingwa said that there was the need to increase the national budget allocation for water projects from the current 0,4% upwards and deal with water quality which stands at 89% at Morton Jaffray which could further deteriorate due to obsolete water infrastructure.

“Harare’s western suburbs that have been affected by typhoid receive water directly from Morton Jaffray which has 89% water quality unlike Eastern suburbs whose water receives further chlorination at Warren Control water works. City of Harare cannot fulfill its obligation as defined in Section 44 of Constitution Amendment 20, if a paltry 0,4% is allocated to water in the national budget. It is unfortunate that the City of Harare is using the 1913 Water Regulations By-law to un-procedurally disconnect water in violation of the responsibility to protect and the responsibility to respect as well as the right to administrative justice. Bond notes have also made it difficult for City of Harare to purchase water purification chemicals which need foreign currency,” Mudzingwa said.

The destruction of wetlands (which are the sources of raw water and purifiers, provide flood attenuation services) has greatly contributed to the spread of typhoid. Floods in Harare are mainly caused by a depleted wetland ecosystem.

More than 4 000 people died as a result of a 2008 cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe. According to the Community Working Group on Health, Greater Harare has since October 2016 recorded 348 cases of typhoid of which 24 were confirmed cases while two people died as a result of the outbreak. In Mbare there were 26 confirmed cases and two deaths.

According to the Director of the Vendors Initiative for Socio-Economic Transformation, Samuel Wadzai, the Harare City Council must address the major drivers of typhoid such as water unavailability rather than to concentrate on window dressing measures such as the ongoing crackdown on illegal vending in Harare’s Central Business District (CBD).

Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Chairperson, Elasto Mugwadi welcomed efforts by civic society organizations to hold the Harare City Council to account adding that they would act on recommendations by the organizations.

He bemoaned that typhoid was becoming a chronic disease in Harare as a result of poor service delivery.

“It is important for local authorities to adhere to and respect the constitution of Zimbabwe in discharge of their duties. They need to ensure that they respect the rights of citizens. The issue of the right to health, clean water and a clean environment adds up to the right to life. We would need to take it upon ourselves to educate city fathers on their responsibilities. Diseases like typhoid should not be chronic diseases,” said Mugwadi.

He also expressed concern that housing stands continue to be allocated on wetlands while admitting that the current crisis facing Harare could be a localized problem of a wider national crisis.

Whilst recognizing that the country has made strides in including environmental rights in the Constitution, which were hitherto unpronounced in the previous Constitution, ZHRC said that there was need for adherence to these provisions for the enjoyment of these rights by all citizens.

“Section 73 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe provides for the rights of citizens to an environment that is not harmful to their health and wellbeing. International law recognises that environmental degradation results in the violation of human rights such as the right to life and the right to health. These rights are protected by a number of human rights instruments which Zimbabwe is party to. Article 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”

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Floods to worsen Zimbabwe’s health woes

FLOODED rivers and homes, collapsing infrastructure, uncollected garbage, rotting vegetables at vegetable markets, clogged storm water drains and traffic jams caused by flooded streets have all become talking points on social media as Zimbabweans try to laugh off their otherwise appalling conditions.
The incessant rains, some of the heaviest the country has seen in recent times — though a welcome relief after two consecutive seasons of erratic rainfall — have triggered heavy flooding countrywide and has given the largely jobless population something to yap about on social media.
But, many are probably oblivious to the grave health dangers the incessant rains are posing.
For instance Harare’s Mbare, one of the country’s oldest suburbs, has become an eyesore with muddy streets skirted by pools of sewerage outflows testifying why indeed the overcrowded residential area became the epicentre of the current typhoid outbreak.
The floods have increased the potential for other waterborne diseases such as cholera and hepatitis A; while the stagnant pools of water countrywide will propagate vector borne diseases such as malaria, bilharzias and yellow fever.
Other health risks, which can be caused by flooding, include drowning, hypothermia, electrocutions and respiratory infections such as pneumonia and asthma.
The Southern African Development Community Regional Early Warning Bulletin for the 2016/17 highlights that the normal to above normal rainfall condition may induce surface water stagnation and flooding that may cause physical havoc in many countries with many people getting ill (morbidity) and many more dying (mortality).
Flooding due to too much stagnating water, according to the bulletin, increases the chances of water borne diseases such as cholera and other diarrhoeal illnesses.
“There is also the increase of rodent-borne diseases such as plague. Vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and others have also increased in times of floods. Malaria increases maternal and child health morbidity and mortality. There has been a noticeable increase particularly in our region of rift valley fever, bacterial meningitis and yellow fever,” reads the bulletin in part.
Lack of sanitation and hygiene due to floods has been identified as the immediate cause of illness and mortality.
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) secretary general, Evans Masitara, said the incessant rains in the New Year have complicated matters for the country, which is currently grappling with the typhoid outbreak.
The outbreak of typhoid could get out of control because of the country’s shambolic emergency response mechanisms.
“Our health sector has been suffering a steady decline over the years due to poor management and lack of adequate resources…The typhoid outbreak is not under control and is actually spreading to other towns and cities with cases being reported in Marondera, Mutare and Masvingo,” said Masitara.
Given poor service delivery, especially in Harare where garbage goes for months without being collected, the country is sitting on a health time bomb which could explode soon, leading to unnecessary loss of lives.
Apart from the heaps of uncollected garbage, Harare is also grappling with erratic water supplies, burst sewer pipes and poor drainage due to haphazard construction of houses on wetlands.
“Meanwhile, the blame game continues as departments shift responsibility for the crisis, and then we have some wise politicians who lack common sense, blaming all this on the poor vendors,” Masitara said.
Without the capacity to deal with the looming disaster, the health sector is overwhelmed, chiefly because of human, financial and material resource constraints.
This is being compounded by low salaries, poor working conditions as well as dilapidated infrastructure.
The population of Zimbabwe continues to expand while the healthcare delivery infrastructure deteriorates.
Government has over the years failed to comply with the Abuja Declaration concerning healthcare funding with the last National Budget allocation for health representing a measly six percent of the total budget.
“The issue is not really a resources issue, but that of misplaced priorities. A week ago it was reported that Atracurium, a drug used for anaesthesia in life saving operations, was running out because the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was not making payments to suppliers on time. This just shows how skewed our leaders priorities are. How can they choose to ignore the fact that health is a basic human right, provided for in our constitution?” Masitara added.
The country’s poor living environments have affected a wide range of health outcomes leading to recurrent epidemics such typhoid.
ZADHR has thrust the entire blame for the country’s recurrent disease outbreaks on the Ministry of Health and Child Care which it says has not instituted proper systems to prevent disease recurrences and avoidable loss of lives.
In the absence of a proactive Health Ministry, Community Working Group on health executive director, Itai Rusike, believes the health burden for local authorities has been especially unbearable given the fact that most of the council are broke, having very little capacity to address the challenges they are facing due to the failure by the residents to pay their bills.
“The local authorities face a lot of interference from an equally struggling central government incapable of bailing them out due to a tight fiscal space,” said Rusike.

newsdesk@fingaz.co.zw

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Zimbabwe Battles New Typhoid Outreak

Credits: Voice of America

by Sebastian Mhofu

HARARE, ZIMBABWE — An outbreak of typhoid in Zimbabwe’s capital has killed two people and is affecting dozens more, raising fears that the southern African country’s water and sanitation problems are far from over.

Officials say that so far, 126 cases of typhoid have been confirmed in Harare since the start of the rainy season in Zimbabwe about two months ago. There are more than 1,000 other suspected cases nationwide.

But Dr. Prosper Chonzi, who heads the Harare health department, said there was no need to panic.

“What we are doing is to educate the public on awareness issues to do with typhoid — what it is, how it is spread, how to avoid getting it,” Chonzi said. “We are also discouraging people from consuming food from undesignated premises.”

Harare city crews, he added, were clearing blocked sewer pipes in Mbare township and trying to ensure supplies of fresh water in affected areas.

Problems persist

However, a visit to those and other parts of Harare on Wednesday told a different story. Faucets were dry, sewer water could be seen flowing, and some people were using water from open sources like lakes and rivers.

Itai Rusike, executive director of the Community Working Group on Health, said President Robert Mugabe’s government did not learn much from the 2008-09 rainy season, when an outbreak of cholera killed more than 4,000 people in Zimbabwe.

“The fundamental health issues that were supposed to have been attended to from the earlier crisis have not been attended to,” Rusike said. “Authorities are taking advantage of the outdated Public Health Act that we are using, enacted in 1924. Public health trends have changed [since then]. This is why you find that it is easier for the city of Harare to pollute our water bodies and pay the fine, [a] very small fine.”

The pollution he referred to is raw sewer water discharging into rivers, which some people rely on for daily use. Those using the contaminated river can easily contract waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera.

Typhoid, an infectious bacterial fever, can be treated with antibiotics, but it still kills more than 220,000 people worldwide each year, according to an estimate from 2014 reported by the World Health Organization.

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CWGH National Annual Meeting and AGM

CWGH 23rd National Annual Meeting and AGM

CWGH 23rd National Annual Meeting and AGM

The Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) is holding its 23rd National Annual Meeting and Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the 16th and 17th of November 2016 respectively at the Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare. The meeting will run under the theme "Leaving no one behind in National Health: What should Zimbabwe's contribution be?"

The CWGH will use the opportunity to review national health issues of concern and propose strategies for enhancing the health sector and in particular community participation in health. The CWGH is a strong advocate of primary health care and preventative health, and strengthening district health systems.

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A Study To Enhance Transparency And Accountability In The Management Of Health Related Issues In The Extractive Industries

A Study To Enhance Transparency And Accountability In The Management Of Health Related Issues In The Extractive Industries

CWGH with support from OSISA is undertaking this study in order to describe the current mining practices in Southern Africa including, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambiuque, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Namibia with a special focus on community participation in mining. In this work, CWGH seeks to conduct a review of the use of health, social and environmental responsibility approaches to promote health-related actions in the operations of extractive industries – particularly relating to the health status of communities affected by the extractive industry. The review includes the effect of extractive industries on the health of surrounding communities, people employed in the industry and direct investment by extractive industries in health infrastructure and services for the communities they operate in through corporate responsibility.
The objectives of this work are:
I. To identify and analyse tools or mechanisms that are used to monitor the health impact of the mining sector in Zimbabwe.
II. To identify organizations which are directly or indirectly involved in the monitoring of health issues in the mining industries.
III. To propose areas for further research in an effort to understand the extent to which mining activities impact on the health of workers and communities.

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Zimbabwe’s Infant, Maternal Mortality Rates Drop

Credits: Voice of America

by Sebastian Mohfu

HARARE — The United Nations is reporting huge improvements in Zimbabwe’s prenatal, newborn and maternal health care over the past five years.

However, the U.N. Children’s Fund says the survey indicates that Zimbabwe must continue working to improve health standards.

According to research findings released Friday, Zimbabwe’s infant and maternal mortality rates have declined by 20 and 36 percent, respectively, since 2009.

The number of pregnant women who received prenatal care increased from 57 to 70 percent, while mothers accessing care after giving birth had soared from 27 to 78 percent.

The UNICEF research was funded by the European Union and the government of Zimbabwe.

Much of Zimbabwe’s progress is due to assistance from a multinational fund dedicated to improving health care for mothers, newsborns and young children.

Despite these encouraging results, UNICEF’s chief representative in Zimbabwe, Reza Hossaini, says it is still too early to say all is well with early child care in the southern African country.

“Let us keep in mind that, yes, we have won battles here and there,” said Hossaini. “We have bent the [trends of] maternal mortality, but we have really not won the war as yet. These gains cannot be sustained and further progress cannot be made if we lose our focus from those strategic choices that we have made, now that we know they have delivered positive results.”

Two of those strategic choices were investing in the health sector’s human resources and making sure that the country maintains adequate supplies of necessary drugs.

Failure on those fronts was the major undoing of Zimbabwe’s health sector over the past two decades.

It was only after organizations such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the European Union poured in money that the situation changed.

Optimism

Itai Rusike, who heads the Community Working Group on Health, an organization fighting for all Zimbabweans to enjoy health care, expressed optimism about the UNICEF report.

“Generally it is a good report,” said Rusike. “It gives us hope in the sense that the indicators are kind of improving. But this report has to be linked up to what is happening on the ground.”

But he added there a dire need for better water and sanitation in most parts of Zimbabwe persists. More than 30 percent of Zimbabweans still do not have access to safe drinking water, the research showed, and Rusike said the real number is likely higher than that, since most water taps in urban areas are dry.

Dr. Gerald Gwinji, permanent secretary at Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health, is more upbea, calling the new health report one that gives the country a sense of direction.

“We now have to work on issues of quality and equity,” he said. “These survey results are going to be one of our pillars of our next health strategy, and the next step is to do a bottleneck analysis [of the] ministry of health and child care. This will help to determine where to focus to help further improve on our health indicators.”

Gwinji said Zimbabwe’s maternal mortality rate — 614 deaths in every 100,000 pregnancies — and infant mortality rate of 75 per 100,000 are still too high. He says further investment can reduce those losses.

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Zimbabwe Cholera Epidemic Persists in Harare Amid Continued Water Woes

Credits: Voice of America November 02, 2009 10:26 AM

Cholera infections continue to occur in Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare, and in the nearby satellite town of Chitungwiza, despite a steep decline in other parts of the country, according to the latest World Health Organization report on the nine-month epidemic.

The WHO reported 105 new cases in Harare, Chitungwiza and the Harare suburb of Budiriro in the five days through Monday, though listing no new deaths. But the Harare region has accounted for 19,232 cases and 653 deaths since the epidemic began in late 2008.

Cases nationally totaled 97,795 resulting in 4,265 deaths from the disease.

WHO attributed the persistence of the cholera epidemic in the capital region to disruptions in the local water supply and continued unhygienic disposal of waste.

Executive director Itai Rusike of the Community Working Group on Health told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA’s Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the capital region risks another major outbreak of cholera when heavy rains resume in September.