Zimbabwe blog: a time of cholera
Updated on 06 January 2009
Raw sewage and uncleared waste poses an imminent threat as cholera spreads in Zimbabwe, writes guest blogger Helen.
It's been almost impossible to get an update on the cholera situation over the Christmas and New Year break and the facts and figures are as elusive as ever.
The World Health organization released figures on the 1st of January: 30 000 diagnosed cases of cholera and 1564 recorded deaths. These are chilling figures and most people believe them to be very conservative.
Witnessing the continued deterioration of sanitation infrastructure on the ground in Zimbabwe makes it very hard to believe that cholera and other water borne diseases are going to be bought under control any time soon.
Driving on an urban road in my home town yesterday a stream of sewage flowed out of a block of flats, down the sandy driveway and onto the main road.
This overflowing sewer looks more innocent but is just as deadly as it pushes out a steady stream of foul smelling green water.
Unlike the horrific photographs of human excrement flowing down roadsides, this overflowing sewer looks more innocent but is just as deadly as it pushes out a steady stream of foul smelling green water.
The stench is horrific and hangs in an invisible fog for two blocks in all directions. In one place the effluent runs across the tar road and into an area of spongy wetland.
This in turn eventually seeps down into one of the little streams where residents can collect water in buckets on the numerous occasions when the town's taps are dry. In another place the stinking green water sits in a dip in the road in a foul and stagnant pool with thick green sludge. 
I winced as a car approached me from the other direction. It was coming at considerable speed and I tried but failed to shrink away from the splash left in his wake.
The problem of the blocked sewer has left stinking water bubbling out onto the road out since before Christmas.
A spray of stinking water landed on my arm and shoulder and the smell left me in no doubt that this was water straight from a blocked toilet.
My disgust and discomfort is nothing compared to that of the people living in the block of flats. Washing hangs on the line behind the building, maize plants grow alongside the driveway and children play barefoot in the sand.
Night and day the residents have no choice but to live with the smell of the sewage and the constant fear of disease.
One street up and on the corner of a main road in the town, a pile of sodden, stinking garbage lies just off the pavement. Flies swarm over decaying waste, plastic bags and mushy litter.
The pile of uncleared waste is surrounded by thick roadside grass which hasn't been cut and undoubtedly hides rats, mosquitoes and unseen disease.
The town's sanitation offices are just two blocks away from the overflowing sewer and one block away from the pile of garbage but nothing is done to clean them up and ensure urban health.
The problem of the blocked sewer has left stinking water bubbling out onto the road out since before Christmas.
A phone call to the local Municipal offices requesting attention to these obvious health risks results in a string of excuses which has become Zimbabwe's familiar, tired litany: no money, no spares, no qualified staff, no vehicles, no fuel.
Its a chilling chorus in a time of cholera.
