Zimbabwe says it has full control of Cholera

HARARE – The Zimbabwe government says it’s in full control of the cholera epidemic.

That’s despite the growing number of deaths from the disease mainly in the country’s capital Harare.

At least 49 people have died and over 7000 infected since the water-borne disease broke out earlier this month.

Meanwhile authorities’ ban on all public gatherings remains in place.

Harare’s southern suburbs of Glenview and Budiriro have remained hotpots of the cholera outbreak.

Ageing water infrastructure and lack of investment in the sector has constantly placed, millions of residents at risk of waterborne diseases.

But Harare mayor Herbert Gomba believes his team is in control of the situation.

“Our intervention has been working well and if you look at the numbers you can actually agree with me that its under control and we are working hard to eradicate the problem. So many people have been assisting us since the outbreak started, World Health Organization and corporates have been coming to actually help, some have been providing us with water bowsers for us to be able to give our people clean water.”

Some residents of Glenview aren’t convinced.

They said authorities have n’t done enough to curb the disease and the problem wo n’t be going away too soon.

“This area has been affected for a long time since the 1980s, I was very young and I used to see sewage flowing everywhere on the roads,” said Glenview resident, Mercy Charangwa.

“The situation is very tough here. We are just surviving by the grace of God. Our toilets and food are being affected by the sewage flowing,” added another resident, Paida Chinyanganya.

Meanwhile, main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa led a Cholera awareness campaign in the affected suburbs.

Zimbabwe suffered its worst cholera outbreak at the height of the country’s its cash crisis in 2008.

A total of 4-thousand people died and at least 100-thousand people fell ill.