Hailstorm leaves a trail of destruction at Siabuwa Hospital 

Source: Hailstorm leaves a trail of destruction at Siabuwa Hospital – NewsDay Zimbabwe

BY PRESTIGE MUNTANGA

A HAILSTORM destroyed buildings at Siabuwa Hospital in Binga, Matabeleland North, resulting in nurses spending one week without shelter.

The maternity wing was also destroyed by the storm at the hospital, which is a major health facility in Binga district.

Construction of temporary renovations are set to commence at the hospital today.

Binga district medical officer Simbarashe Manjengwa told Southern Eye that due to the urgency of the situation, the hospital will, in the meantime, use old materials to repair the damage as they await a response from the Health ministry and the Civil Protection Unit (CPU).

“It is true that for the past week our nurses have been struggling with accommodation.

“What we did is we had a few empty rooms in which we instructed our nurses to share while we were finding a solution. The waiting mothers were also affected,” Manjengwa said.

“Binga Hospital has very old roofing materials, so we communicated with the directors there who offered us the materials.

“Tomorrow we are going to roof the nurse’s shelter and the waiting mother’s ward so that we can resume our normal duties.”

Manjengwa said they were planning to renovate the whole hospital as it was dilapidated.

“Most of the material is old. We are still waiting for the Health ministry and the CPU to advise us on what to do because their environmental health team will survey the area and the cost of damages,” he said.

“We also want to renovate the whole hospital because its structure is old.

“The funds which the CPU is going to allocate to us are going to determine our budget for the renovations.”

In February last year, flash floods destroyed 215 houses and displaced 967 people in Binga.

About 58% of those displaced were children after the confluence of Simbwambwa, Sikande, Namapande and Manyenyengwa rivers flooded.

CPU director Nathan Nkomo said government was yet to provide the affected families with decent accommodation.