MASVINGO City Council says it will consider the construction of more public toilets
following cases of embarrassing open defecation at Garikai market, one of the city’s
big markets.

Garikai market commonly known as Chitima markets is located on the outskirts of
the Central Business District, along the Mucheke River.
It accommodates large numbers of vendors, selling different wares from vegetables
to clothes.

Through its partnership with Dialogue on shelter for homeless in Zimbabwe,
Masvingo Municipality built a pay toilet to improve sanitation.

But according to the minutes of the Health, Housing and Environmental Services, the
toilet is not being used.

The residents seem to prefer bush toilets over the pay toilets and some other toilets
in the city because poor maintenance of the facilities which always have blockages.
“With regards to the open defecation at Garikai market, it was noted that residents
were avoiding public toilets because there are system blockages,” reads the
minutes.

“Proposals were made for charging the market tenants a lesser fixed monthly fee for
using the pay toilet. Others proposed for the construction of more public toilets whilst
another proposal was made for the frequency of cleaning of the public toilets.”
The Director of Housing and Social Services, Simbarashe Mandishona, said the
solution would be to hand over the cleaning of the toilets to the Garikai market
management committee as this would significantly improve hygiene and cleanliness.

In an interview some of the vendors said the toilets were unkempt and likely to
expose them to more health dangers. They felt the local authority needs to see to it
that its ablution facilities are clean at all times.

You cannot enter into the toilets because of the smell and sometimes there will be
water on the floor. The toilets are not clean and so some of us end up going into the
bush.

If you look just a few metres from this market there is a lot of vegetation and that in
its own gives a proper private space for those who use bush toilets. Council should
at least trim the trees.
People outside the market and in the Central Business District said they cannot use
council toilets as they risk losing their wares with the on-going blitz against public
vendors.

Some prefer the use of sanitary lanes and with the rise in cholera cases it is
essential that council quickly intervenes.

Zimbabwe has been struggling to contain spread of cholera outbreak, with the
Government announcing measures amid fears of a repeat of its 2008 outbreak that
sparked a “national emergency”.

Cholera cases span all 10 of Zimbabwe’s provinces, with the most alarming spikes in
the south-eastern provinces of Masvingo and Manicaland, the epicentre of the crisis.