SYDNEY SAIZE IN MUTARE
Mutare residents are enduring an onslaught of strong stench from the Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital (formerly Mutare Provincial Hospital) ’s mortuary, as bodies rot in their numbers owing to crippling power cuts.
Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital is Manicaland’s main and referral hospital.
However, residents around the area told Business Times they battle with a stench smell daily.
“It is getting unbearable for us and we plead with the responsible authorities to intervene on our behalf. Imagine having to get by with such a situation on a daily basis. This is unhealthy and we beg for a quick solution to this,” Isaac Munemo, a resident in the nearby suburb said.
Some members of the Johane Masowe WeChishanu who conduct their prayers close to the hospital said their church programmes and prayer sessions are being affected.
“One cannot concentrate on worshipping in such an environment, amidst a very strong smell of rotting human bodies,” a Johane Masowe WeChishanu church member, Ismael Marezu told Business Times.
Efforts to get a comment from the hospital’s superintendent Dr Dorcas Mutede were futile.
He referred all questions to the provincial health chief Dr Simon Nyadundu.
All efforts to get a comment from Dr Nyadundu were also futile.
Last month, there were reports that at least 30 premature babies in incubators died at the region’s main health centre owing to the increased power cuts.
It is understood that most health facilities across the country were battling the same challenge.
There are now calls for use of alternative energy sources such as wind and solar in critical sectors such as health.
Clean energy activists and environmentalists have made calls for the government to seriously consider investing in wind energy particularly in Manicaland province given the mountainous terrain.
James Mupfumi of the Centre for Research and Development said it was high time that Zimbabwe seriously consider the use of cleaner sources of energy to augment another cleaner source, the hydroelectric power from Kariba Dam.
“It would be wise if the government shifts attention to harvesting wind energy. Manicaland and Mutare in particular have mountains which makes it a strategic point to have wind farms above solar farms as well,” Mupfumi said.
