CHOLERA RISK: 91 OUT OF 242 HOMESTEADS HAVE TOILETS IN MATSAPHA

MANZINI – The threat of cholera is high in Matsapha, as from 242 homesteads, only 91 have toilets.

The lack of toilets leads to tenants relieving themselves in plastic bags and in the open veld. This was derived in an assessment conducted by the Environmental Health Department under the Ministry of Health, which, among its findings, was that out of 242 homesteads, 69 lacked lavatories while 82 had inadequate toilets. The assessment was conducted in Matsapha, which has peri-urban surroundings littered with one-room rental flats for cheaper accommodation for the over 22 000 employees in the textile industry and other low-paying sectors.
The findings of the assessment by the environmental health officials became the basis for officials from the Manzini Regional Environmental Health Department, under the Ministry of Health, to conduct water and sanitation trainings.

The trainings are focused on overcrowded locations in Manzini and Matsapha. They empowered the residents with the importance of proper hygiene. On Saturday, at Kwaluseni Central Primary School, residents of Kwaluseni, who included tenants, landlords and traditional leaders of the area, attended the training. According to the Manzini Regional Acting Environmental Health Officer, Celiwe Mkhonta, they started the trainings following a confirmed cholera case at Ticantfwini, which is another peri-urban residential area under Manzini North Constituency. Mkhonta said they targeted overcrowded areas due to the high probability of cholera spreading in densely populated areas. Cholera is a communicable disease.
The environmental officer explained that the positive case recorded at Ticantfwini was isolated, as the infected person was from Mozambique.

She said despite that the cholera case was not due to the poor sanitation of Ticantfwini, they deemed it fit to be proactive and empower residents located in overcrowded places on the significance of proper sanitation. She said some of their targeted areas, among others, were Ticantfwini and Mangwaneni. Mkhonta said the trainings were also prompted by the findings of the assessment programme conducted at Kwaluseni, which had been an ongoing activity since July 2023, to date. “During the assessment, a total number 242 of homesteads, which had 3 870 people living in them, were visited. We discovered that only 91 homesteads from the 242 homesteads had proper sanitary facilities,” Mkhonta said.

Assessment

She reported that during the assessment, 69 homesteads were discovered to be without toilets. Mkhonta also said 82 homesteads were found to have been with improper sanitation, while 126 were found to have been with improper solid waste disposal facilities.  The environmental health officer said being guided by the results, as the Manzini Regional Environmental Health Department, they found it necessary to conduct the trainings at Kwaluseni as means of empowering the concerned community on issues of hygiene. She said as a guideline, they were targeting landlords, tenants, community leaders such rural healthcare motivators (bagcugcuteli), community police, bandlancane, indvuna yenkhundla and bucopho, to name a few.
Furthermore, Mkhonta said the exercise of training the community members started on the weekend of the March 2, 2024, as they observed that the attendance was good.

Testament to this, Mkhonta said the attendance had improved, with 40 people attending the trainings. She said those who attended were the targeted groups. She said: “The ongoing trainings focus on toilet construction, waste management, oral faecal route, tippy tap, water treatment, water harvesting, food safety and pest control.” Mkhonta said the benefits of the campaign were that the community members would be able to improve their sanitation facilities and be able to keep them in good state, while also empowering the community members to improve their water status. On the other hand, Mkhonta said they anticipated that the communities which they visited would improve their hygienic standards, including the availability of refuse pits and also ensure that there was improved and proper waste management, as well as the minimal diarrhoeal cases in the country.

Recently, this publication reported that the Ministry of Health had intensified its vigilance against the outbreak of cholera through three interventions and was calling on the public to be alert as well. Minister of Health Mduduzi Matsebula, in a press statement, reported that his portfolio had been monitoring the cholera outbreak situation in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region over the past 12 months. He said Eswatini remained vigilant against cholera and ensured that key interventions were prioritised by the Ministry of Health, through working with development partners and donors. These interventions, he said, were strengthening the component of Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) through stronger in-country collaborations with other sectors responsible for WASH, such as city councils, authorities and relevant ministries.

Also, he said it entailed strengthening of the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response systems at all levels, including for all diarrhoeal diseases in order to identify cholera quickly.
The third intervention, according to the minister, was engagements with neighbouring countries to identify cross-border transmission risks and mitigating them, including improved surveillance for cholera at informal entry points, where cholera cases and dead bodies may come through. He said: “The Ministry of Health urges members of the public to be vigilant of cholera signs and symptoms and report to the nearest health facility immediately you suspect them. Anyone with a watery diarrhoea should visit the nearby health facility where a diagnosis can be made in case the diarrhoea is due to cholera disease.”

The minister said Eswatini last recorded two confirmed cholera cases in March and April 2023, in the Manzini and Shiselweni regions. He said both cases were admitted and treated in isolation with successful outcomes. Matsebula said a success factor was that they presented themselves early to the health facilities and were promptly diagnosed and treated. The minister said since early 2023, the country had been positioning itself to be ready to respond to a cholera outbreak through six public health emergency response interventions.

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