The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
WHILE the whole world is shaken and health officials are frantically trying to deal with the deadly coronavirus, to the general populace in Bulawayo, a major threat lies just under the nose of the city’s squatter camp communities.
Despite people at the camps being illegal habitants, educating them on the coronavirus could save the city and the country at large a lot as they pose as a major threat to efforts to contain the spread of the disease. A recent visit to Richmond Sanitary Landfill popularly known as Ngozi Mine on the outskirts of the city, revealed that Bulawayo was sitting on a time bomb. With no running water or ablution facilities the “residents” rely on water from open pits and a council office, which is a distance from the squatter camp.
When Sunday News crew visited the dumpsite, it was greeted by flies that were literally all over and a pungent smell of rotting garbage from the landfill. A shed constructed by a local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) is where visitors are welcomed from, the only chair and several containers which serve as seats were infested with flies. Just at the entrance of a shed was a dirty 20-litre container with water which is what they use to “sanitise” in a bid to prevent coronavirus infection. Human excrement can also be seen right next to the container with water for washing hands.
“We are trying to protect ourselves from this disease that is being spoken about, so we have put water there so that we wash our hands. We also don’t shake hands anymore,” said Mr Gideon Tshuma, the chairman of the compound.
He said they had not received any education or information from the city fathers or any other organisation on the virus and its complications.
They rely on hearsay.
“We have heard some things on the radio and just from each other in this area but nothing from officials so the fear is that we may be sharing wrong information. We just heard there is a disease which is flue like, cases have been recorded in the country. We don’t know where it is coming from too. We hear that we need to wash our hands before and after we touch anything so that we do not spread the virus and also hand shaking was discouraged from what we heard.”
The city council used to deliver bowsers of clean water for the squatters but it has stopped with no reasons given. A distance from the main settlement, a woman could be seen washing dirty plastics she had picked from the dumpsite. Several others could be seen on the dumpsite scavenging for what they could get to resell without much thought of contamination of diseases from the landfill.
According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care, coronavirus can be spread through close personal contact or touching an infected object.
However, people who scavenge at the dumpsites come into contact with objects thrown away from households, offices and streets which are a potential threat in the face of the virus. Further, in order to prevent the contamination and spread of the virus, the public needs to wash their hands with clean water and soap, use an alcohol-based hand rub after sneezing or coughing or caring for a sick person.
They must wash hands also after visiting the toilet, before eating food, preparing it and after eating.
Ms Sithembile Ndlovu another resident of Ngozi Mine said she has heard about Covid-19 in the compound but was not very sure what it was.
“Yes, I know a little about it from hearing from others and also on the radio. I hear it makes people sick,” she said while looking at women who were preparing a large meal for children in the community.
Just like Mr Tshuma, the only method of transmission of the virus known to them is via shaking of hands.
Other methods are not known from them which is a serious problem as transmission could occur via close personal touch with an infected person or getting into contact with their breath droplets or when they cough or sneeze.
Asked on whether they understood the risk they put themselves under by scavenging in waste they do not know where it came from and whether it is contaminated or not, Ms Ndlovu said they had no option but to scavenge.
“We fear for our lives but we have no option as this is the only source of livelihood, we survive on picking whatever we can and selling it. It’s better that we go and dig in the rubbish piles and get something out of it than to sit here fearing Coronavirus,” said Ms Ndlovu, throwing caution to the wind.
She, however, said it was their wish that they get educated on the virus as a community so that they have adequate information on prevention. Mr Tshuma said there were 157 families that were resident at the illegal settlement and called on the council to allocate them land near the dumpsite so that they could still come and scavenge to eke out a living.
Another possible threat to the spread of the Coronavirus that Mr Tshuma unknowingly mentioned was that there were people who live in the city’s suburbs that camp at the dumpsite during the week to pick up what they need.
“We have some people who actually come and stay here during the week picking up what they need and they return to their homes in the city over weekends. These ones we do not count as residents of our compound,” he said.
There is a risk that these frequent trips to Ngozi Mine and back home could lead to the spread of the virus. The squatter camp being informal, has no clinic or health facility where the residents can get adequate and correct information from and they rely only on Cowdray Park Clinic which is a few kilometres away. The residents also professed ignorance on what self-quarantining was or where people who are suspected to have the virus should seek help from.
