Speaking at a workshop for media practitioners in Bulawayo, Macaela De Sousa, UNICEF’s Chief Communications officer, said that the work that the organ was currently involved in was been necessitated by the cholera outbreak of 2008/9 that left nearly 4,000 dead and affected 100 000.
“Zimbabwe is the only country where UNICEF is supporting urban rehabilitation programmes. Usually we don’t go into rehabilitating of urban water systems, but we had a cholera outbreak that was caused by the breakdown of the systems.”
She added: “Usually we carry such programme in countries that are ravaged by war such as DRC and also for rural communities.”
The collapse of services in the years preceding the Government of National Unity (GNU) saw a marked deterioration of infrastructure in both urban and rural councils. Water supplies were erratic during the era when local authorities failed to supply water treatment chemicals because of cash constraints.
The country sanitations woes culminated in a cholera outbreak whose ripple effects are still being felt in some parts of Zimbabwe.
“We should not wait for the situation to be as bad as of the 2008/9 period when many innocent people lost their lives” Micaela said.
Post published in: Health