Garbage collection, disposal is important

There is a public outcry throughout Zimbabwe about the dirty conditions of most of the country's urban centres, a situation that worsens daily as garbage accumulates in so-called sanitary lanes.

It is also likely to spill onto the streets as its collection and disposal by councils are both irregular and inefficient.
The capital city, Harare and its sprawling satellite town of Chitungwiza, have in the past few years witnessed outbreaks of cholera and typhoid fever.
Both diseases are caused and spread by parasitic bacteria. Cholera is actually caused by vibrio cholerae. Typhoid fever is an infectious bacterial disease which attacks some animals as well. Its cousin, typhus, is an infectious fever caused by Rickettsia bacteria and is characterised by headache, fever, a purple rash and delirium. Rickettsia are parasitic micro-organisms that cause several febrile diseases. They are named after an American pathologist, H T Ricketts, who identified them towards the end of the 19th century.
These diseases are closely associated with highly unhygienic living conditions where bacteria thrive virtually uncurbed.
Bacteria are one-celled organisms classified as plants in spite of the fact that they do not have chlorophyll.
They are so classified because:
= the shape of their cells are more or less fixed as that of plants
= some species tend to grow in filaments
= some bacteria can live on inorganic food stuffs.
= They absorb rather than ingest the foodstuff that they live on
Bacteria are found actually everywhere, in the air, on the ground, in water, on even healthy animals but mostly decaying animal and vegetable matter.
All bacteria require a fluid environment such as water, or rancid urine or decaying fruits or leaves, especially those of vegetables.
While bacteria are very closely associated with human communities, because some of them are vital to our very existence, many species are dangerous because they cause diseases, some of which are fatal such as cholera.
Most bacteria which cause disease in human beings cannot live or multiply outside human body. They can, however, grow under special laboratory conditions.
The cholera-causing bacteria can grow only in the intestinal mucous membrane. Bacteria enter the human body through what the medical fraternity term "portal of entry". This may be the nose and throat mucous membrane or through the skin or through the genital organs.
There are three classes of bacteria, and they are named according to their appearances through the microscope.
These are:
= The bacilli, which are rod-shaped and are the most numerous of all kinds of bacteria. The species fall under this type, the short, thick oval-like coccobacilli, and the chain-like streptobacilli
= The spiralla are the least numerous. They are S-shaped or spiral in form, hence their name. To this family belong the vibro, which is like a rod with curved ends or like a coma. There is also the spiralla which are spiral-shaped and move by means of flagella, that is to say long lash-like appendages visible only through high-powered microscope.
Under the spiralla we also come across the spirochetes which are flexible, spiral-shaped, and move by bending their bodies in a wave-like way.
= The third type are the cocci. They are shaped like a globe. Under this group are the streptococci which more or less tend to remain together in a chain formation. Belonging also to this family are four others, the micrococci which completely separate after cell division and appear to be scattered under the microscope. Their cocci cousins, the staphylococci group is in uneven clusters like grapes. The diplococci are a cocci type that remains together in pairs as the prefix "di" implies. The last cocci group are the sarcinae. These form cubical clusters of eight cells.
Bacteria reproduce so rapidly that one will split into 4 000 organisms in an hour under favourable conditions and the dirty, rancid, fly-infested slimy conditions in some of our towns are most suitable for such a mode of reproduction.
Some are killed by exposure to the rays of the sun for an hour or so. But other types will continue living for few days, resisting the hot sun. There are kinds that instead of dying completely produce spores. These spores are condensed and enclosed in a tough sort of envelope and can remain inactive for many years, coming to life when conditions become favourable.
Although heat is widely believed to kill bacteria, some types will either resist it until the temperature is extremely high or will mutate and turn into another form that can resist the heat, whether of a boiling liquid or of naked fire.
This means that disposal of garbage by incineration should be properly carried out. While it is scientifically true that bacteria cannot withstand direct sunlight and that some cannot live where free oxygen circulates, it is also a fact that bacteriologists find it rather strange that some will grow only where there is no free oxygen. These obtain oxygen by splitting up proteins and carbohydrates of organic substances in their environments.
These are referred to as anaerobic bacteria or simply anaerobes. Those that are dependent on oxygen in the air or free oxygen are called aerobic bacteria. Some of these are able to grow to some extent without free oxygen. They are in that case called optional or facultative anaerobes.
There are also those anaerobes which do very well without free oxygen, but grow to some extent in its presence. These bacteria are known as optional or facultative aerobes. Bacteria are quite interesting to study, albeit some if not many are toxic.
This article is not meant to highlight the usefulness of bacteria to human beings in various industries such as breweries and those that make vinegar, but is meant to show the dangers posed by these organisms in dirty urban environments such as those now obtaining in Zimbabwe.
Since prevention is always better than cure, it is most important for councils to organise health awareness campaigns, and to prioritise garbage collection and disposal.
It is also vital for them to have engineering teams responsible for repairing damaged and malfunctioning sewage systems so that towns and cities do not turn into bacteria-breeding garbage dumps.