News / Health
Govt, stakeholders urged to accelerate water and sanitation programmes
06 Dec 2023 at 11:17hrs | Views
GOVERNMENT and stakeholders have been implored to accelerate change in tackling the worsening sanitation crisis in the country to arrest the outbreak of cholera and other waterborne diseases.
The call was made by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) as the nation recently joined the world in celebrating the World Toilet day.
The World Toilet Day, has been an annual United Nations (UN) observance since 2013 and is observed annually on 19 November to celebrate toilets and raise awareness of the 3.5 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation and to highlight progress on achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2, which speaks to safe toilets for all by 2030.
"In 2023, World Toilet Day is commemorated under the theme "Accelerating Change", which challenges people across the world to take action and help speed up progress on improving access to toilets and sanitation systems," ZLHR said.
"Sadly, with just seven years left to achieve the goal of meeting the UN SDG 6 of Clean Water and Sanitation, which entails safe toilets and water for all by 2030, progress is reportedly and woefully off track and yet access to safe and inclusive sanitation facilities is a fundamental human right."
The human rights lawyers said revelations by the UN that 3.5 billion people are living without safe toilets and that more than 400 million people are still practising open defecation, poses a serious threat to nature and every person's health and challenges everyone to work faster to meet the UN sanitation target of meeting SDG 6 of ensuring safe toilets and water for all by 2030.
"On World Toilet Day, ZLHR stands in solidarity with the global movement to address the critical issue of sanitation and emphasises the importance of safe and inclusive toilet facilities for all. Safe and clean toilets are not just about physical safety but they symbolise people's belief in dignity, respect, and equality for every individual," lawyers said.
"It is extremely appalling that in 2023, more than a decade since the last deadly cholera outbreak, the medieval ailment has made a devastating comeback which is putting millions of Zimbabweans at risk. The fact that Zimbabwe is still stalked by the ever-present threat of a medieval disease thought to have been eradicated centuries ago and which is preventable is an indictment of both local and central government actions on improving sanitation and access to hygiene services such as toilets."
The lawyers said the current cholera outbreak is a terrible consequence of local and central government's failure to invest in and manage basic water and sanitation infrastructure.
They noted that considering the fatal experiences of 2008, local and central governments should have been better prepared to respond to the cholera outbreak but it appears that no lessons were learnt from the previous devastating epidemic.
"It is disconcerting that the conditions which more than a decade ago allowed the cholera epidemic to flourish, continue persisting in the country and in the face of dysfunctional healthcare, medieval ailments are turning people's lives into living nightmares.
There must be full accountability at both local and central government for the failings that have resulted in the resurgent outbreak of cholera, the disease that is claiming lives in violation of the right to life. It is imperative that local and central governments urgently take and implement remedial measures to arrest the spread of cholera and safeguard precious human life and health," ZLHR said.
"To accelerate change and eradicate the sanitation crisis and stop the outbreaks and horrors of medieval diseases, ZLHR calls upon local and central government and other stakeholders to immediately and decisively take action to stop people from contracting and dying from preventable diseases such as cholera, provide safe toilets and water for all now and by 2030; invest in infrastructure and sanitation facilities and ensure the realisation of the human right to sanitation, which is crucial for the protection of constitutional rights and to ensure universal access to safe and affordable drinking water for all."
The call was made by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) as the nation recently joined the world in celebrating the World Toilet day.
The World Toilet Day, has been an annual United Nations (UN) observance since 2013 and is observed annually on 19 November to celebrate toilets and raise awareness of the 3.5 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation and to highlight progress on achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2, which speaks to safe toilets for all by 2030.
"In 2023, World Toilet Day is commemorated under the theme "Accelerating Change", which challenges people across the world to take action and help speed up progress on improving access to toilets and sanitation systems," ZLHR said.
"Sadly, with just seven years left to achieve the goal of meeting the UN SDG 6 of Clean Water and Sanitation, which entails safe toilets and water for all by 2030, progress is reportedly and woefully off track and yet access to safe and inclusive sanitation facilities is a fundamental human right."
The human rights lawyers said revelations by the UN that 3.5 billion people are living without safe toilets and that more than 400 million people are still practising open defecation, poses a serious threat to nature and every person's health and challenges everyone to work faster to meet the UN sanitation target of meeting SDG 6 of ensuring safe toilets and water for all by 2030.
"It is extremely appalling that in 2023, more than a decade since the last deadly cholera outbreak, the medieval ailment has made a devastating comeback which is putting millions of Zimbabweans at risk. The fact that Zimbabwe is still stalked by the ever-present threat of a medieval disease thought to have been eradicated centuries ago and which is preventable is an indictment of both local and central government actions on improving sanitation and access to hygiene services such as toilets."
The lawyers said the current cholera outbreak is a terrible consequence of local and central government's failure to invest in and manage basic water and sanitation infrastructure.
They noted that considering the fatal experiences of 2008, local and central governments should have been better prepared to respond to the cholera outbreak but it appears that no lessons were learnt from the previous devastating epidemic.
"It is disconcerting that the conditions which more than a decade ago allowed the cholera epidemic to flourish, continue persisting in the country and in the face of dysfunctional healthcare, medieval ailments are turning people's lives into living nightmares.
There must be full accountability at both local and central government for the failings that have resulted in the resurgent outbreak of cholera, the disease that is claiming lives in violation of the right to life. It is imperative that local and central governments urgently take and implement remedial measures to arrest the spread of cholera and safeguard precious human life and health," ZLHR said.
"To accelerate change and eradicate the sanitation crisis and stop the outbreaks and horrors of medieval diseases, ZLHR calls upon local and central government and other stakeholders to immediately and decisively take action to stop people from contracting and dying from preventable diseases such as cholera, provide safe toilets and water for all now and by 2030; invest in infrastructure and sanitation facilities and ensure the realisation of the human right to sanitation, which is crucial for the protection of constitutional rights and to ensure universal access to safe and affordable drinking water for all."
Source - Byo24News
