THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 10 2010 05:37 | LAST UPDATED Feb 10 2010 05:37 |
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Zimbabwe has cut water supplies to the capital Harare, state media reported on Monday, leaving most of the city dry as authorities struggle to contain a cholera epidemic. Since the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) had failed to find chemicals to treat the water supply, the state-run utility on Sunday stopped pumping water in the capital, the government mouthpiece Herald newspaper said. "Most parts of Harare -- including the city centre -- did not get water yesterday [Sunday] amid claims by Zinwa staff that the authority had stopped pumping after it ran out of one of the essential chemicals," the Herald reported. Residents in Harare's populous sister city of Chitungwiza said that their taps had also run dry. People throughout the city were carrying containers searching for water, while others have resorted to digging shallow wells in their yards in the hope of finding water. Some government offices have closed down due to the lack of water and sanitation in the buildings. The city has suffered water cuts for years, prompting wealthier residents to install deep wells or cisterns. But the city-wide cut appeared aimed at stopping the flow of untreated water around Harare, which is at the epicentre of the cholera epidemic. Cholera is a highly contagious, but treatable disease that causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting that can kill a patient within hours. The government says that 425 people have died of cholera across the country and a total of 11 071 suspected cases had been reported since the current outbreak began in August. There were also reports on Monday that anthrax had killed three people. Two children and one adult in the Zambezi Valley have died of the disease, which also threatens to kill 60 000 livestock in the region, Save the Children, a British non-government group, said in a statement. Anthrax is a highly contagious infection that usually only afflicts livestock, but can be transmitted to humans who handle or eat infected animals. Brushes off verdict Meanwhile, President Robert Mugabe's government on Monday shrugged off a regional court's ruling against controversial land reforms in a new rejection of international interference in Zimbabwe's affairs. Lands Minister Didymus Mutasa insisted the government would go ahead with seizing property from 75 white farmers despite a tribunal for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) ruling on Friday that the farmers could keep their land. The judges ruled that the farmers facing eviction and three more whose land was already seized had been discriminated against because of their race. Mugabe's government flatly rejected the verdict, which struck at the heart of his controversial reforms to resettle landless black Zimbabweans on white-owned farms. "They are day-dreaming because we are not going to reverse the land reform exercise," Mutasa said in the Herald. "There is nothing special about the 75 farmers and we will take more farms. It's not discrimination against farmers, but correcting land imbalances," he added. - AFP TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
Comments
One wonders how much worse it can become in Zimbabwe. All of us, Africans and the international community, need to revisit why we are so paralyzed while Zimbabweans' suffering worsens every day year by year by year, seemingly endless. There will never be peace and justice in the world until men like Mugabe and his ilk are sharply and swiftly curtailed.
solinus jolliffe on December 1, 2008, 1:32 pm
So this is how this stupid lot think they can fix the Cholera problem, surley that will just force people to drink any water they can find? They say they have no chemicals to treat the water but there are at least eight broken pipes in Harare resulting in major loss of "TREATED" water going straight down the storm drains. They won't fix the leaks that would probably sustain half of Harare in clean water and then complain there are no chemicals!!! Finally, someone needs to point out that the farmers who are having their land and possessions stolen by this government actually bought their farms after 1980 with this governments blessing and they have the papers to prove it. So in reality it's just a racist move by mugabe to loot and steal for his cronies again, and make sure there is no food at all for us at all. I repeat, these criminals must be punished so forget the amnesty and lets wait for justice to prevail.
Peter macklyn Starving Harare Resident
Peter Macklyn on December 1, 2008, 2:14 pm
Who is "Day dreaming" here Comrade Minister? Looking aside will not make any problem go away. Sweeping the problem under the carpet doesn't mean the house is clean. You can run, but you can never hide.The Zimbabwe regime should face up to the "dirt" they created and make atonement.
Temba Hove on December 1, 2008, 7:14 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVkTOi1phBM. We have to understand alot of things first and foremost.
Thuthukani Mkhize on December 1, 2008, 10:35 pm
Really, do they really think this will solve the problem. Whats happening to humanity people? its like we have lost all disregard to what it feels like to be human, to love and to care for the next human being. Why is it that we can just stand aside and watch all this happeing and not even flinch due to the evil that is happening around us. The problem lies in that we think that whatever is happening is somebodies responsebility. Well, let me tell you, the first people who will have to carry the burden of this ignorance will be South Africans themselves. We are already doing that but this is nothing. Where axactly do you think that our fellow Zimbabweans are going to run to when all has finaly kissed the ground? If our South African government does not take drastic action and i am not talking about offering some blanket solution to remedy this wound but actually eradicate the source of all this mishap, then we are all doomed I tell you. God have mercy on us all!
ruth Magakwa on December 2, 2008, 2:08 pm
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