Correspondent|A NEW cholera outbreak has been detected in Chiredzi, a small town in Masvingo province in south-east Zimbabwe, after one person from village 11B Monyoroka in Triangle tested positive for cholera and is currently admitted in a quarantined ward at Chiredzi Hospital.

The patient is in a stable condition, the district medical officer Brian Dhlandhlara has said.

Chiredzi housing and community services director Emily Paradzai has said the outbreak is attributable to illegal settlements and increased vandalism of water reticulation systems, with some settlements using the bush to relieve themselves.

A2 sugarcane farmers and various other farmers who are not into sugarcane production in Hippo Valley farms and Mkwasine Estates, as well as other farmers around Chiredzi, are still using bush toilets, 18 years after the chaotic fast track land reform exercise.

Chiredzi Town Council has since recommended the closure of all compounds with no running water and toilets after it emerged that Mkwasine compounds do not have running water and proper toilet facilities, while farms 46 and 52 in Hippo Valley are said to have no toilets though water is available, leading farmers and their workers to resort to bush latrines.

The facilities at both Hippo Valley farms and Mkwanise Estates are said to be in a deplorable state and people consume water from canals, making them susceptible to waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera.

Chiredzi Town Council has resolved that council engages sugarcane farming associations on the issue. In cases where there is no running water, the council is planning to engage Tongaat Hulett so that it supplies water in those areas by bowsers.