News

Zimbabweans Battle To Prevent New Cholera Outbreak

Published

16 years ago

October 19, 2009

Workers trudge through foul-smelling mud in a trench seeping with clean drinking water and raw sewage in one of the Harare neighbourhoods hardest hit by last year’s cholera epidemic.

The repair work is a race against time to patch the city’s sewage system before the rainy season begins in November, when health workers fear the water-borne disease could erupt again.

The three-metre (10-foot) deep trench cuts through Usuf Austin’s driveway and runs the length of his block, forcing his family to leap across the hole to get into their house.

But he’s happy for the crew to replace the leaky pipes blamed for fueling the epidemic that killed more than 4,200 people and sickened nearly 100,000.

“The sewage was coming out day in and day out, 24 hours a day” when cholera first struck in August 2008, he said.

“This sewage water mixes with the rain water during the rainy season,” he added.

The epidemic erupted last year as post-election violence swept Zimbabwe, already crippled by a decade of economic decline blamed on controversial reforms by autocratic President Robert Mugabe.

The country’s collapsing public infrastructure added to chronically overburdened sewer systems and water shortages. This in turn gave free rein to the diarrhoeal disease, which is easily preventable with clean water and proper sewage but thrives in places without proper sanitation.

The crew on Austin’s road is one of dozens tearing up streets around the Zimbabwe capital, including much of the city centre, in a donor-funded drive to fix the worst of the sewer problems.

Raw sewage still trickles along street sides in working class neighbourhoods like this one, but the onset of rains could easily turn it into streams.

The work is gruelling under Zimbabwe’s tropical sun, as the crew use pick axes and shovels to dig the trenches by hand, without protective gloves or masks.

“We have to go to the houses to ask for gloves, even shovels,” said Titus Sibanda, 35, the crew’s foreman. “All the people on these streets, they help us.”

Zimbabwe declared an end to the cholera epidemic at the end of July, and only five cases have been reported since then, in a rural district where periodic outbreaks are common.

What distinguished last year was its epicentre in Harare, which accounted for most of the victims.

Residents of the capital had been used to reliable, clean drinking water and had never had to take cholera precautions.

But leaky pipes left raw sewage seeping into the water supply. Mounds of rubbish, accumulating by the day, have also become a common landmark on the outskirts of most poor suburbs as authorities lack fuel or spares to keep dump trucks on the road.

Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown last year left hospitals and clinics without money for basic medicines and supplies, while doctors and nurses went on strike to demand their wages.

The result was the worst cholera epidemic anywhere in the world in more than a decade.

Most of the response was led by aid agencies, who shipped in water treatment tablets and medicines, and set up emergency cholera clinics.

The UN Children’s Fund has warned that a new outbreak is “almost inevitable” when the rainy season begins in November, as an estimated six million people have little or no access to safe water and sanitation, the main driver of cholera.

“Unfortunately we do believe that cholera has become endemic within Zimbabwe,” UNICEF’s chief of health Mickey Chopra said recently.

“There’s not been enough time to repair that infrastructure, so we are preparing for a cholera outbreak in the rainy season.”

But Health Minister Henry Madzorera said Zimbabwe is better prepared this year. Doctors and nurses are back on the job, so clinics are running again. Education campaigns have highlighted the importance of boiling water, washing hands and other prevention measures.

“You’ll notice in Harare there is a lot of excavation happening. The water supply is going to improve,” he told AFP.

“We encourage people to take hygiene measures,” he said. “But the rainy season is coming, we may have a few problems.”

All the pipes that need replacing will never be fixed before the rains, the crew foreman in Highfields said it’s important for the public to see efforts are being made.

“People need to see things working day to day,” Sibanda said. “Harare is going to come back.”

News

NELFUND Warns Students Against Fake Loan Portal

Published

21 hours ago

November 19, 2025

The Tide

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund has alerted the public to a fraudulent message circulating online, claiming that the NELFUND Student Loan Registration Portal is open.

The message directs applicants to a third-party link (http://gvly.xyz/Nelfund-Student-Loan, which NELFUND confirms is unauthorised and fraudulent.

In a post obtained from its X handle, yesterday, NELFUND urged students and the general public not to click on the link or provide any personal information, emphasising that the official loan registration portal is only accessible through the Fund’s verified channels.

The agency reminded applicants to exercise caution online and to report any suspicious links or communications claiming to be from NELFUND.

“Applicants are encouraged to always verify official announcements via NELFUND’s official website and social media channels,” NELFUND said.

This advisory comes as part of NELFUND’s ongoing efforts to safeguard students and ensure the integrity of the student loan application process.

News

Eastern Port Police Boss Promises On Crime-Free Operations

Published

22 hours ago

November 19, 2025

The Tide

The new Commissioner of Police Eastern, Ports Command, Mr Tijani Fatai has promised to ensure a crime- free ports operations in the zone.
He said effective policing will be mounted across the ports in the zone in tackling the high rate of community unrest, activities of port rats and other social vices.
Fatai while speaking to newsmen shortly after taking over as the 17th commissioner said he wants to be remembered as a peace maker during his tenure as Commissioner of Police in the Eastern Ports Command.
According to him,’’the community policing is the sure way of addressing most conflicts and other social vices bedeviling our society today and I will explore it to its fullest” .
The Commissioner also assured officers of the rank and file of improved welfare whoch he described as a cardinal objective of the present efforts of the Inspector General of Police (IGP).
He said,” the Inspector General of Police has sent me to assure you all of welfare, promotions as and when due,no officers particular rank and file will be left behind in the coming months.
Fatai before his recent posting was an operational officer,who spent most of his years with the Police Mobile Force (PMF) where he served as Unit Commander (UC) and Commander, PMF.
Before his redeployment as a Commissioner of Police,(CP), he was the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations, DCP, Operations, Lagos State Command.

News

Kalabaris Celebrate New Year Amid Fanfare

Published

22 hours ago

November 19, 2025

The Tide

Thousands of Kalabari indigenes from Akuku- Toru, Asari-Toru, Degema and Port Harcourt City Local Government Areas last Sunday gathered at Elem Kalabari in Degema Local Government Area to celebrate what they said is the Kalabari new year amidst pomp and pageantry
According to stakeholders, the event which started over 200 years ago normally falls on the 16th of November every year.
The of this year’s celebration which was organised by Kalabari Renaissance Foundation was “Our Heritage, Honouring Our Waters and Renewing Our Spirit.”
Stakeholders said this year’s celebration was symbolic as it was holding at Elem Kalabari which is the home of the Kalabari people.
The event also featured various masquerade displays from cultural troupes within Kalabari and beyond.
Speaking on the significance of the event, the Amanyanabo of Elem Kalabari (The Source), HRH Mujahid Asari Dokubo, said the celebration signaled a return to the traditional values of the Kalabari people and the need for self-recreation.
“It’s not just about celebration, It’s about recreating ourselves, bringing us back from death.
“The organisation that has come to take over this celebration – Renaissance – really fits the description of what ought to happen to us as a people.
“It’s not just Kalabari; it’s about all of us and our values. We have to look at ourselves and our values,” he said.
Dokubo called on all Kalabari citizens to join hands together to revive their traditional values and heritage in order not to lose their cultural identity and spiritual trajectory.
Also speaking, Harry Awolayeofori MacMorrison, Chief Administrator and Chairman of Kalabari Renaissance Foundation, organizsers of the Kalabari new year festival, said the event marks the beginning of a new calendar year for the Kalabari people, after November 15 of every year when the tide cleanses the pollution from the Sombreiro River inflows, describing it as a renewal of the Kalabari people.
“It’s the renewal of the people. Kalabari area is saline environment and at a time, the Sombreiro River comes in and pollutes the river.
“On the 15th November, across Kalabari, the tide turns and takes all the fresh water that polluted the saline river back to the Sombreiro River
. “On the 15th is the end of the year. Normally when there is an end, there is a new beginning. On the 16th (November) is the beginning of the Kalabari calendar,” he said.
Awolayeofori Mac Morrison said the Kalabari communities had been holding the new year festival separately in the past until the Renaissance Foundation decided to champion a unified celebration to enable them forge a common front of trado-cultural and socio-economic development across the entire territory.
He said last year’s event held at Abalama while they decided to bring this year’s celebration to Elem Kalabari because of it significance to the Kalabari nation.
Also speaking, a member of the planning committee and media lead, Journalist Ibiba Don Pedro, said there was need to reawaken the consciousness of their people on the need to embrace their traditional values without reservations, noting that there was nothing fetish about the festival.
She said the celebration was to unite the Kalabaris as well as project the cultural heritage of the people.
Don Pedro said time has come for Africa to go back to their root , adding that development will continue to elude African countries until the people rediscover themselves.