By Michael Gwarisa
In Glendale, mornings are no longer a time of fresh beginnings. Instead, residents wake to an unbearable reality, human excreta strewn across their doorsteps. Burst sewer pipes, left unrepaired for months, spew waste into the streets, forcing entire neighborhoods to navigate pools of sludge. The stench of decaying matter clings stubbornly to the air, invading homes and harassing nostrils with every breath.
Among those most affected is the Nyirongo family residing in the Highway section of Glendale, whose ordeal serves as a chilling reminder of the public health crisis gripping Glendale. All ten members of the family were rushed to a local health facility for admission and treatment after testing positive for cholera.
Their home, once a safe haven, has become ground zero for contamination. A shallow well on their property, previously a reliable source of water, was compromised by the seepage of sewage into the underground water supply. The resulting infections have left the family fighting for their lives and cast a harsh spotlight on Glendale’s failing sanitation and water systems.
Ten out of twelve members from my family including myself were admitted at Tsungubvi Cholera Treatment Centre on December 26, 2024,” said Gogo Erecta Nyirongo. “All along, we assumed our water was safe. Before the fateful day, it rained heavily for two consecutive days on 24 and 25 December, leading to the contamination of our well with sewage.”
By December 27, the entire water from the well had turned green due to large sewage deposits from the nearby marsh.
This is just one of many such stories unfolding in the township, where the intersection of poverty, neglect, and collapsing infrastructure is fueling a deadly resurgence of cholera. To date, one death and over 100 cholera cases have been recorded in Mazowe, mainly in the Citrus Flowers area and Glendale.
Giving an update on the cholera situation in Mazowe, Dr. Clement Chuma, the Provincial Medical Director for Mashonaland Central Province, said poor water and sanitation infrastructure was a major driver of cholera in Glendale and Mazowe in general.
“We have a number of drivers of these infections, and the main one is that most of the time there is no running water in the taps. This has caused a number of things—a kind of chain reaction, I would say. The absence of tap water has forced people to drill boreholes or dig shallow wells on their homesteads. The absence of tap water has also made it difficult for the sewer to flow,” said Dr. Chuma.
Owing to the water woes, the sewage is not flowing and has solidified in the pipes, and when the water comes, the sewer doesn’t flow, bursting the pipes in the process. Most streets in Glendale are currently flooded with raw sewage and water from burst sewer pipes.
“Once the sewer water starts flowing on the surface, it now goes to contaminate all the shallow wells in the community. That’s one of the challenges. We also have areas where the sewer pipes and the water pipes are running parallel. In some areas, they are broken at the same point, such that they are communicating, and the sewer is now getting into the water. The water is going into the sewer pipes, therefore feeding raw sewage to people living downstream of the broken sewer pipes.”
The rainy season has exacerbated the cholera crisis, as heavy rains frequently wash sewage into open water sources and shallow wells. In Glendale, where sanitation infrastructure is collapsing, these rains act as a catalyst, creating an ideal environment for the cholera bacterium to thrive. The pooling of water in streets mixes with raw sewage, heightening the risk of rapid transmission. Public health experts warn that the lack of drainage systems in many parts of the township will likely cause recurring outbreaks unless immediate interventions are made.
By close of business Monday, January 6, 104 cases had been recorded, with 40 of the cases in Mazowe Flowers. Glendale had 36 cases, mainly coming from a section called Glendale Highways suburbs. The first case was detected on December 19, 2024. Of the 104 cases, 93 had been discharged by January 6, 2024, and ten patients were still receiving treatment. The case fatality rate stood at 1%.
A number of interventions have been launched to respond to the cholera outbreak in the Mazowe area. Pathological tests have been conducted on wells, revealing faecal contamination in all the shallow wells in the area. Three meetings have been held by various partners to find a solution to the crisis. The National AIDS Council has donated two boreholes to address the water crisis in the affected communities.
Speaking during a familiarization visit to the affected areas, Honourable Sleiman Kwidini, the Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care (MoHCC), said measures were being put in place to address the water situation.
“We have seen where the cholera originated from, and I am happy that our team has managed to control the situation on the ground in collaboration with the Civil Protection Unit (CPU), which has come up with a holistic approach to contain this disease, which has caused one death so far,” said Hon. Kwidini.
He added that they had engaged partners to address the prevailing water crisis in the affected areas.
“The challenge here was that of water shortages, but now, because of our visit, we are working with other partners such as the National AIDS Council (NAC), which has come to our rescue and given us two 5,000-liter tanks and boreholes in the communities where cholera has been reported.”
