RECENTLY the rains started pouring in some parts of Zambia, signifying the start of the rainy season.
While the annual wet season brings the joys of rainfall to mankind, the season is sometimes also synonymous with a fatal waterborne disease called cholera.
This bacterial infection spread by contaminated water tends to strike in hot and wet seasons.
According to the World Health Organisation, while global incidence greatly decreased in the late 1990s, cholera remains prevalent in parts of Africa and Asia.
The global burden of cholera is largely unknown because the majority of cases especially in rural and peri-urban areas are not reported. Previous studies, however, estimate 2.9 million cases and almost 100,000 deaths occur annually.
Since January 1,2023 and as of September 25, about 723, 067 cholera cases, including 4301 deaths, have been reported worldwide.
Zambia has experienced cholera since 1977, with Lusaka being one of the main hotspots in the country.
However, apart from Lusaka and other known hotspots, especially in fishing areas such as Nsumbu, Lunga and Mpulungu, analysis has shown that other districts that are near neighbouring countries with a high prevalence of cholera are at risk too.
In Ndola, there is a popular privately owned trading centre with several bars within the Central Business District (CBD) that has no reliable lavatories.
Like other crowded areas, this place has about 100 shops operating with only a single pot-like toilet where men queue up as they take turns to pour water in the cistern. The area has no flushable toilets, opening patrons to the risk of cholera.
Surprisingly, on a daily basis, revenue collectors from the Ndola City Council pass through every shop here to tax the
occupants.
Like most busy trading places dotted across the country, the place located near Likili Motorways has several restaurants, bars, garages, shops, salons and barbershops, operating in unhygienic conditions.
This place located within Ndola CDB is similar to one of the city’s popular pubs owned by a known lawmaker, whose joint is in Pamodzi area where running water has been a challenge thereby putting the lives of the patrons who flock there at risk.
Despite the named parliamentarian being a popular business man capable of sinking a borehole at his trading place, most of the customers are equally exposed to unsanitary conditions.
With the onset of the rainy season, cholera cases become a topical issue.
Though preventable, cholera can be fatal, experts say.
For instance, at the height of the cholera epidemic of 1999 in Ndola,the death toll rose to 26 within a short period of time and the Zambia Civic Education Association even recommended the closure of all unhygienic open air markets.
But it seems lessons were not learnt. Apart from various businesses operating in unsanitary conditions, traders too in major towns such as Ndola, Lusaka, Kitwe, and Livingstone continue to sell products such as meat in open air ‘butcheries’.
The open air butcheries have continued to flourish in major townships of
the country despite the vice posing health risks especially during this period when diarrhoea and cholera become rife.
On offer are various meat products, sausages, chicken pieces and fish
that are sold briskly by the traders.
Apart from the health risks, open air selling of fresh meat and fish products is particularly unsafe to members of the public during the rainy season when diseases such as cholera become rampant.
The councils, too, seem reluctant to enforce laws on hygiene and good sanitary conditions in townships.
The Council Public Health Department’s main mandate is to spearhead the inspectorate function in accordance with the Public Health Cap 295 and the Food and Drugs Act Cap 303 of the Laws of Zambia.
However, there has been inertia by the various councils in the country to carry out their duties to police these illegal activities.
As for traders, their only concern has been how to make money for themselves and their families without taking into account the risk posed by their business to the health of the general public.
In some cases, the fresh products are said to have been retrieved from waste discarded by abattoirs known in the local parlance as “Malabo”.
Unfortunately, they end up on a plate in homes and at a third rate restaurant where they are served to an unsuspecting clientele.
Hope Chisha, whom this columnist found buying meat chops from an unlicensed trader in Ndola, claimed that he does so because he believes such products were much cheaper.
But according to Niza Sinkala,an environmental health officer, purchasing of fresh products in unhygienic places has its own consequences especially when it comes to cholera.
He said that prevention was better than cure, as maintenance and treatment of diseases such as cholera borne from unhygienic conditions results in a heavy drain on the purse of individuals and the Government.
“The meagre resources that could have been used for other purposes are channelled to treatment of preventable diseases such as cholera due to poor adherence to hygiene,” Mr Sinkala said.
Like earlier stated, cholera is preventable.
It is only hoped that various local authorities would take serious measures to avert cholera by enforcing bylaws that are at their disposal.