by Christopher Makaza
It is worrisome that the death toll due to typhoid outbreak in Gweru has risen to seven while fresh cases continue to emerge in the MDC led council. The same scenario is happening in Kadoma where residents have raised concern over reports that council has been supplying dirty water to some parts of the city for a week.
Most MDC led council are on record for failing to provide basic services like refuse collection, roads rehabilitation, provision of clean and safe water and repairing burst sewage and water pipes, exposing residents to deadly diseases such as cholera and dysentery. These councils have turned towns countrywide into garbage and trench cities.
It`s unfortunate that urban residents missed the opportunity they had during the past election to vote out incompetent and corrupt MDC councillors so as to bring in new and vibrant councillors. During the campaigning period, President Emmerson Mnangagwa urged the urban electorate to get rid of MDC councillors who for years failed to improve service delivery in urban areas. Unfortunately, the people voted on party lines and returned the same failed people who will deliver nothing new.
On the Gweru issue, it is disheartening to note that the council allegedly concealed the disease for close to a month before it was discovered by the Ministry of Health and Child Care. It is reported that close to 130 people were treated for suspected typhoid on Heroes` Day alone, while two others died.
Taped water in almost all urban areas in the country could be contaminated, causing water borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery. In some cases the water appears clean but smelling of sewage while in other cases, there will be visible dirty particles.
Government has since intervened in curbing typhoid outbreak in Gweru. Residents in Mkoba 15, 18 and 20, which were the most affected, had since started receiving water treatment tablets as well as water containers in an effort to stop the spread of the disease.
The Ministry of Health and Child Care has since condemned Gweru City Council water as unsafe.
MDC led councils have also been affected by mismanagement of council resources including rate payer`s money, misplaced priorities, corruption and greediness, corruptly awarding themselves stands at the expense of service delivery.
Most MDC councils prioritise awarding themselves hefty salaries at the expense of service delivery and purchasing very expensive and luxurious vehicles for city fathers yet they complain of having no funds to purchase refuse collection trucks and ambulances for health services.
Uncollected garbage, flowing sewage have become an eyesore in most urban residential areas too. Burst water pipes take ages to be repaired yet some areas go for years without clean water.
