Zimbabwe’s second largest city, with 1.5m residents, stands to lose Z$62.9bn (US$91,285) in revenue generated from water and sewerage management which it had budgeted for this year.
In the past, surplus on the water account was used to finance new housing, health and education projects.
Hardest-hit will be the city’s health department that has, till now, enabled the city to provide working class residents with drugs and other medicines, which major government health institutions have been unable to offer.
“Some services may well collapse,” says Councillor Emmanuel Kanjoma. “We have committed ourselves to prioritising health in our budget and had built large stocks of drugs out of part of the surplus revenue generated from the water and sewer services,”
According to council records, both water and sewerage management generated 64.1 per cent of the city’s total revenue for 2004. The services generated 71.5 per cent in 2005 and 77.8 per cent of the total revenue last year.
“This might be the end of health care for the poor,” laments Sylvia Mtombeni of Cowdray Park suburb. Â
“We cannot afford the high consultation fees charged by hospitals. Often the hospitals merely diagnose the ailment and tell the sick to go buy required drugs from private pharmacies, hence our preference for council clinics,” Mtombeni says. “Municipal clinics provided us affordable health care.”
Ten municipal clinics have spearheaded HIV/AIDS activities including coordinating home-based care programmes and prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV.
Together the clinics cater for nearly a thousand patients a month. – Own correspondent
Post published in: News