Maputo’s Chamanculo neighbourhood: A cholera incubator

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Maputo’s Chamanculo neighbourhood: A cholera incubator

9:54 CAT | 20 Feb 2017

O País / The city of Maputo recorded one cholera death

Adults forced to walk through puddles of stagnant water where children play with no protection at all – a familiar sight Chamanculo, one of the Maputo municipal districts at the centre of the cholera outbreak of recorded last Thursday by the Ministry of Health.

Residents say they are unaware of any cases of the disease but report serious sanitation problems. “As you can see, it is not even raining, but there is water running down here and it is stagnant in this place and it comes with a lot of dirt,” says neighborhood resident Muguirra Adamo.

“I have not heard reports of cholera, but cases of diarrhea are often caused by this water, because children play here a lot.”

We visit one of the houses with a conventional bathrooms, built to improve the quality of sanitation. But it is used by at least 10 families, so instead of improving the quality of life, it becomes a danger.

“We do cleaning, but when it’s others’ turn, they just don’t do it. It is difficult for us to keep cleaning while others do not comply with the rules. When that happens, we also stop cleaning,” says Helena Matine, one of the users.

Gabriel Alfredo also uses the same bathroom and says: “It’s difficult to keep a bathroom used by so many people clean”.

In the Inhagóia neighbourhood, another the districts said by the Ministry of Health to have registered cases of cholera, some families live with trash in the yard.

To date, 55 cases of cholera and 1 death have been registered in the city of Maputo. The remainder occurred in Nampula province.

Source: O País