2008 was an especially grim year in Zimbabwe – and prospects for the
coming year seem little better. The fact that Zimbabweans were
celebrating the new year at all might seem surprising. But many people,
or at least those with some money living in the cities, were in the
mood to party, if only for a night and to forget their worries.
Zimbabwe is gripped by economic collapse. Hyperinflation, the worst in
the world, has seen prices skyrocketing, making it hard for many to
access food and fuel. Last month, the country's central bank introduced
a 10 billion Zimbabwean dollar banknote, but its actual worth, about
$10 US dollars on the black market, is rapidly decreasing day by day.
Most shops now only accept foreign currency not Zimbabwean notes.
On top of the economic meltdown – which has seen doctors, teachers, and
most government staff staying away from work because their pay in local
Zimbabwean dollars won't even cover their crippling transport costs –
is a serious and worsening humanitarian crisis.
A cholera outbreak in August has now affected more than 30,000 people,
and claimed the lives of more than 1,600 people, with cases now being
reported across every province in the country.
Cholera is an easily preventable and treatable water-borne disease. But
its spread in Zimbabwe is being fuelled by the collapse of health,
sanitation and water services. There are limited medical supplies and
many don't have access to clean drinking water or proper sanitation.
The onset of heavy rains this month is worsening an already alarming
situation.
A second humanitarian crisis, still under-reported, is worsening
malnutrition and food shortages. There have been several years of
failed harvests; a serious shortage of seeds and fertilisers; and
driving hunger is forcing many to eat seeds instead of planting them
for next year's crops.
The UN has warned that around five million people, more than half of the population, will soon rely on food aid.
The country is also facing political deadlock. Efforts to form a
power-sharing government between the ZANU-PF party of President Robert
Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, and the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change, has stalled.
I got a sombre insight into many of the problems the country was facing
as I visited Kadoma city in central Zimbabwe, about 180 kilometres west
of the capital, Harare.
Oxfam has been working in the area, drilling boreholes so that
communities can access safe drinking water; distributing hygiene kits
and undertaking health promotion work.
The health authorities have reported nearly a thousand cholera cases
since mid November, with 29 deaths. Unofficial statistics put the
figure even higher.
The Cholera Treatment centre in Kadoma CityThe cholera treatment centre
– mainly consisting of makeshift canvas tents – was packed with 120
patients. And staff were working flat-out.
Two people had died that day; and I was shown a tent containing the
wrapped corpses of seven bodies, several of which had lain there for
several days and were swelling. Fuel shortages and rocketing prices
meant that there were no vehicles available to take the bodies to the
local cemetery.
Things aren't stabilising, said one nurse, they're getting worse. We're seeing more patients every day.
With early access to treatment – intravenous fluids and oral
rehydration – patients can recover quickly and be discharged within
days.
But a visit to a nearby housing estate – described as a cholera
timebomb' by a senior health official – made clear why the epidemic is
sweeping across the country.
The sewage system had broken down; and residents were disposing human and other waste in the narrow lanes around their homes.
Open sewers in Kadoma CityChildren played alongside open sewers. There
was no running water and the community of around 1200 depended on water
from a borehole Oxfam had provided.
Those images haunted me as I sat in the jazz bar that night.
Zimbabweans might have little to celebrate, other than surviving
another difficult year; but they are still pinning their hopes that the
coming year might bring some change for the better.
by Caroline Gluck in Harare.
Post published in: News