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50 percent of rural folk use bush toilets
By A Correspondent

32 years after Zimbabwe gained its independence from Britain, about 50% of the country’s rural dwellers still utilise the bush to relieve themselves.

This was revealed by the Minister of Water Resources Development and Management Samuel Sipepa Nkomo who attributed current outbreaks of water-borne diseases to the problem of bush water system usage by villagers.

“Ministers were laughing at me when I told them that our assessments show that 48% of Zimbabweans in rural areas use bush toilets,” said Sipepa-Nkomo. “They could not believe me. Our studies show that this is true. I told my colleagues in Cabinet that some of them could not fit into some of the toilets that villagers use.”

Nkomo Minister even stated that some homes do not even have the common blair toilets installed from Rhodesian times: “Most homes in the country especially in rural areas have no toilets. I was in Mtshabezi on Wednesday [last week] and nine out of 10 households there did not have toilets,” he said

Sipepa-Nkomo was speaking to journalists after touring Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (Wash) projects in Bulilima and Mangwe district in Plumtree last week.

He emphasised the need to educate villagers on the importance of having toilets, especially the older generations.

“I think first of all, most villagers do not appreciate the need to have and use toilets. Most of them grew up in an era where it was unthinkable to use toilets,” said Sipepa-Nkomo. “When I was growing up, there was nothing like that [toilets].”

The Wash project is managed by Unicef but funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International and Development (DFID).

Unicef Zimbabwe representative, Gianni Murzi also confirmed the statistics.

Nkomo added stating that children in rural areas die before the age of five due to pneumonia and diarrhoea-related diseases as a result of poor sanitation.

Nkomo said: “Most child deaths are related to the lack of access to sanitation and safe water as well as poor hygiene practices. We need this project (WASH) to help villagers realise the need to have toilets to protect themselves from diseases.” (The Independent/ZimEye)

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