NO WATER, PATIENTS USING PIT LATRINES

MHLANGATANE – Patients at Ndvwabangeni Nazarene Clinic are exposed to serious health hazards, as they use pit latrines to answer the call of nature.

It has been confirmed that patients are forced to relieve themselves using the pit latrines, because toilets inside the facility are malfunctioning due to the lack of water. This is a challenge some of the hospital personnel confirmed, has become normal despite being an obvious inconvenience to everybody. When this publication paid a visit to the health facility a week ago, the situation looked dire and desperate at same time. This clinic services over 3 000 residents under Mhlangatane Constituency, where Madala Mhlanga is the Member of Parliament (MP).The legislator also holds the position of Deputy Speaker in the House of Assembly and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). He confirmed being aware of this challenge, which he assured, was getting due attention from the Inkhundla Council chaired by Indvuna Yenkhundla Mfanzile ‘Fash’ Dlamini.

Challenge

However, the current water challenge has effectively compromised service delivery to an extent that some financially-abled residents now prefer taking the longer route to Mkhuzweni Clinic for health services. Mkhuzweni is situated just a few minutes away from the fast-growing Buhleni business area, which is yet to be officially gazetted as a town. Nurses at the facility shared the difficulties they were going through due to the water crisis at this facility.  They did not hide the fact that this situation is making their work difficult, as it is compromising efficiency in terms of service delivery to the community they were mandated to serve when the facility was constructed.

One of the concerns from the nurses is that the use of pit latrines is exposing the patients to serious health risks. According to research, contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio. There are a number of known disadvantages of pit latrines even to healthy human beings, with flies and odours normally noticeable to the users. Given their frail health conditions, doctors would normally not recommend pit latrines as an alternative for patients.

Inconvenience

One of the blatant disadvantages and a serious inconvenience for patients is the fact that this kind of toilet has to be out-door, “When you are sick, you are often weak and the walk to the toilet itself can be a taxing to the body ,” said a nurse. At Ndvwabangeni Clinic, the distance to the pit latrines for the patients takes up to a minimum 10 minutes walking distance, making it a tedious process for them, especially during summer. Mhlangatane is known to be one of the most humid areas in the northern Hhohho Region of the country during this time of year. Scientific results also show that pit latrines have low reduction in organic matter content and pathogens and have possible contamination of groundwater with pathogens and nitrate.

Further investigations revealed that besides attending to patients, the staff personnel must perform the duty of ensuring water is available in the tanks mounted around the facility. It was confirmed that the clinic spends E600 to buy litres of water that normally last less than two weeks.   “It is certainly not an ideal situation and not meeting the health requirements. You cannot operate a facility where patients cannot have access to proper sanitation; it is criminal in the health language.

Treatment

“These patients come here for specific treatment but end up contracting other illnesses, because they have to use pit latrines. Mhlangatane is a big constituency and most of our patients are closer to Mpofu,” the staffer said. She further confirmed that they service over 60 patients a day, confessing that the shortage of medical drugs was another challenge, even though manageable.  “There is no balance in our medical drugs stock, but we do have the medication that is frequently used by the patients. Otherwise, there are challenges on that part as well but we are doing the best we can,” she added.

Her colleague said the health authorities needed to make time and visit these facilities to assess the situation instead of relying on reports from regional health departments. “If they can just come here and see for themselves how tough our work with the water challenges we are facing is . We cannot continue to work like this because it is unfair on the patients. Our professional ethics are not in line with the kind of service we are giving at the moment,” he said. MP Madala Mhlanga said they were now banking their hopes on World Vision to come up with a lasting solution. “This is an old challenge facing the clinic and clearly, it is affecting residents who use this facility. Our constituency has water challenges and we are working around the clock to address this issue. We are hopeful that World Vision, as our partner, will assist in this regard,” Mhlanga said.

Residents

The legislator said it is not acceptable that a clinic that services close to 60 residents in a day has no running water. He noted that water is very critical in any health facility, lamenting that patients are using pit latrines. The MP, however, gave assurance that they were not resting on their laurels, saying efforts were being made to find a lasting solution.  Indvuna Yenkhundla ‘Fash’ asserted the challenges facing the clinic in question, saying they were working around the clock to find a remedy.

“The water challenge at the clinic is not a laughing matter, because it is affecting a lot of residents who use it. We are working as a collective to find solution to this challenge and we are hopeful that our partners will assist us,” he said. World Vision’s Sakhile Dlamini did confirm to this publication that they have set up camp at Mhlangatane Constituency to offer assistance where possible. This was after unveiling E12 million Water project in the area, ensuring that residents are now using tap water through solar panel. As part of the funding, the organisation set aside E2 million to construct sanitary facilities for the residents as well.

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