HARARE The government has ordered city councils not to cut water supplies to residents who default on rate and other payments, saying it was critical to ensure availability of clean water to all residents to reduce chances of a fresh cholera outbreak. (Pictured: An NGO worker treating cholera patients at the height of an outbreak oWater Resources Minister Sipepa Nkomo said: As a government we are not saying residents should not pay their bills, but in order to curb the cholera outbreak the government has issued a directive to all councils not to disconnect water supplies to residents.
Some parts of Zimbabwe have reported new cases of cholera this year with five people said to have died of the water borne disease in the Gokwe area in Midlands province while several others were hospitalized.
A cholera epidemic that coincided with a doctors strike killed 4 288 people out of 98 592 infections between August 2008 and July 2009.
International aid agencies that helped fight the cholera epidemic say Zimbabwes humanitarian situation remains precarious and that the same problems that helped spread cholera remained unresolved, with six million people or half of the countrys total population of 12 million people with little or no access to safe water and sanitation.
But Nkomo said the government was more prepared than before to combat an new outbreak of the deadly disease.
He said: We are ready and conscious than last year in case we have another cholera outbreak and one of the ways is for local councils not to disconnect water.
According to Nkomo the government would continue to assist local councils in improving water supplies and recently mobilized US$17 million from foreign donors to improve water supplies to resident in Harare that was the epicenter of the last cholera epidemic.
Post published in: Analysis