[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Water crisis in Zimbabwe - doctors appeal

[Patrick Bond]

(With calls like this, progressive activists will become more aware of 
the dire health/water conditions described below, and likewise, will 
issue similar statements about the crises in their sectors, so that the 
elite transition engineered by ex-SA president Mbeki and the neoliberal 
call for austerity, state budget cuts and civil service shrinkage are 
met by countervailing bottom-up pressure for a responsible state and 
more public sector jobs to deliver the goods so desperately needed.)

Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights

Urgent Action Needed to Address Water Shortages and Breakdown in Sanitation

19 September 2008

A serious health crisis currently looms over Zimbabwe's urban areas due 
to a severe shortage of running water in most areas. The Zimbabwe 
National Water Authority's (ZINWA) failure to treat and pump adequate 
supplies of water has left most urban homes dry and forced residents to 
rely on unsafe supplies of water. This coupled with a breakdown in the 
sanitation system (burst sewage pipes and lack of refuse collection and 
proper disposal) is threatening the health of millions on Zimbabweans.

The new Government must address this crisis as a matter of urgency. It 
is a matter which cannot wait for resolution of differences or 'sticking 
points'. Public service provision has been inadequate for several years 
and requires urgent and comprehensive remedial action.

Access to safe drinking water and to adequate sanitation are human 
rights and not privileges of the Zimbabwean population. They are 
determinants of health which if not made available can result in 
outbreaks of diarrhoea, cholera and dysentery that are life threatening. 
Lives have already been lost to cholera in Chitungwiza and health 
centres in Harare and Bulawayo are burdened by numerous cases of 
diarrhoea on a daily basis. It is highly likely that the number of 
deaths in Chitungwiza, currently reported at 12 individuals, is much 
higher, and that this is but the tip of an iceberg of much more 
morbidity. This has not been communicated to the public.

Outbreaks of cholera at any time are symptomatic of serious structural 
problems within the system of public works. They are more common when 
rains have resulted in flooding or overload of drainage systems. An 
outbreak in the middle of the dry season is particularly disturbing.
The public has a right to be fully informed and updated on:
(1) what measures are being taken to address the water and sanitation 
crisis and
(2) what measures are in place to prevent and manage outbreaks of disease.

It is not adequate for the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare to 
respond to disease outbreak only after it has occurred. It is paramount 
that it works in conjunction with other ministries concerned, such as 
that responsible for water resources, and ZINWA, to ensure that disease 
is prevented and that Zimbabwean's right to the highest attainable state 
of physical and mental wellbeing is respected.

ZADHR calls for an urgent, coordinated and comprehensive response from 
the new Government to this crisis in water and sanitation.