By Sukuoluhle Ndlovu
Zaka – Ndanga District Hospital in Zaka has been hit by serious water shortages amid the fight against Covid -19 pandemic an official has said.
The water challenges being faced at the hospital has led to slowing down of operations at the biggest referral health centre in the district.
The nearest water source is three kilometers from Ndanga hospital at Chimedza Secondary School and patients and health officials have to travel that distance in search of water.
The hospital since last year closed down its theatre wing due to water challenges.
This was revealed at a tour of the hospitals isolation facility in the presence of Zanu-PF District Coordinating Committee (DCC) together with the Zaka district Covid 19 taskforce and District Medical Officer (DMO) Dr Mutero Mupereki.
“We are in a very serious problem here; we do not have running water due to plumping faults. We raised the problem to ZINWA officials but up to now we have not yet heard from them . We are not even sure of when we will get water supplies because our borehole had pumping problems since last year,” said Mupereri.
“We are facing problems in the cleaning of hospital utensils and linen and as an emergency measure the hospital is relying with borehole water from a nearby school where the staff is using buckets to contact their duties,” he added.
Dr Mupereki appealed for the Government to increase rapid test kits in the district which is now a Covid -19 hotspot following an increasing number of Covid-19 related deaths.
One patient admitted at the health facility who spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity said the situation is getting worse each and every day.
“Ndanga hospital used to be the best hospital but now it has deteriorated. Water is a basic need and a hospital cannot run without water at any costs so we calling on those responsible to act and make sure the issue is addressed as soon as possible. It is a disaster in the maternity ward and having to travel again three kilometers to get water is not very easy. In times like this water should not be a challenge as we are also fighting against the world wide pandemic, Covid -19,” she said.
The completion of the isolation centre is being slowed down by a number of challenges including financial shortages, and delay in the process of purchasing building materials and due to water challenges they are not even able to admit Covid -19 patients and there is also no PPEs.
Zaka District Chief Executive Officer, Edward Chivasa appealed for the government to allow Councils to use the devolution funds to rehabilitate isolation facilities as the nation is up in arms against the scourge of covid 19 cases.
