Harare Children’s Hospital is one of the worst affected institutions running with little or no water. Picture: TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU
A PUBLIC health crisis is looming at the country’s major referral hospitals as water shortages have become critical, exposing patients to disease outbreaks. The lack of water is likely to expose patients to, among others, nosocomial infections — hospital acquired infections transmittable among bed ridden patients.
The situation is being worsened by the fact that most of the hospitals around the country are overcrowded, with patients sleeping in beds that are a few centimetres from each other. The continued operation of hospitals without running water is a violation of international standards, which require health institutions to close immediately in the event that they run out of water.
Responding to questions posed by legislators in the National Assembly, Health and Child Care Minister, David Parirenyatwa, admitted that the water shortages have reached critical levels in the country’s major hospitals. He also echoed concerns that there could be serious disease outbreaks at the institutions if the situation is not urgently addressed. He said all hospitals in the country were grappling with severe water shortages but the situation was worse at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and Harare Hospital, Zimbabwe’s major referral medical institutions, where complicated health conditions from all over the country are referred to.
Highfield East legislator, Erick Murai asked the minister to explain measures being taken by government to solve the problem. “We have some big hospitals in the country such as Harare Hospital, which are operating without water and patients are being asked to bring water from their homes, which I think is not good. Is there anything that the government is doing to solve the crisis?” he asked.
Parirenyatwa said government was encouraging hospitals to sink boreholes to mitigate the disaster. “Yes, we are having acute water challenges but we are encouraging our hospitals to sink boreholes, which are not enough. We are also looking into the issue so that we can have more water as we are really pained that our patients and hospital staff do not have water. We really want to have piped water in these hospitals but councils are also having their challenges providing it and so we are trying by all means to sink more boreholes,” he said.
A nurse at Harare Hospital who could not be named for professional reasons confirmed the developments saying conditions there had deteriorated to alarming levels. “It is true that we have been operating without running water at the hospital for several months and we have no choice but ask the patients’ relatives to bring own water for bathing and toilet use. It is a terrible situation,” the nurse said.
As for the capital, water shortages are likely to persist as the Harare City Council has warned residents to brace for more water woes due to high demand coupled with failing equipment at most of the local authority’s waterworks. Most suburbs in Harare and the city’s dormitory towns like Chitungwiza, Ruwa and Norton have been receiving irregular water supplies for several months, forcing residents to fetch the precious liquid from open wells and burst pipes as well as from the heavily polluted rivers. — Staff Reporter