CHIBHORANI TALK
WITH SEKURU TAURAI

Good day fellow Chibhoraniland country people. I do hope that I find you in good health, healthy and strong as a horse, kuita bhiza chairo parimire, mutakuramombe mbudzi ihata. Unfortunately not all of us will be as healthy as that. Quite a good number of us are sick and will get sick due to different causes and reasons, some unavoidable and some quite avoidable. These days our beautiful Chibhoraniland finds itself having to fight this deadly disease they call cholera that is making many people sick and has already claimed a good number of precious lives. Wanting to know more about the killer disease I asked Sekuru Google. You know kule Google, he is a fountain of knowledge, chitubu cheruzivo chisizivopwa. Here is what he had to say, “Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.” Wow, never mind the big English and Latin medical words. After all Latin is a dead language, even deader than a dodo. Simply put cholera chirwere chemudumbu chinokonzerwa nokudya chikafu kana kunwa mvura ine hutachiona. What is important here is to know that cholera is caused or spread through eating food or drinking water that is contaminated. Although it is an easily treatable disease it is as deadly as the deadliest snake as it can kill within hours if it is left untreated, even in people who were previously quite healthy. However death from severe dehydration can be avoided using a simple and inexpensive rehydration solution.
Why should we then have cholera killing numerous people in Chibhoraniland? Well Sekuru Google went on to tell me that ‘’Cholera is a disease of poverty affecting people with inadequate access to safe water and basic sanitation.’’ We have noted that there is cholera in Chibhoraniland. So it means that Chibhoraniland has countless poor people who are unable to access safe water and basic sanitation and therefore getting sick and dying from cholera. In rich industrialised countries modern sewage and water treatment have totally eliminated cholera but it still exists in Africa, Southeast Asia and Haiti. However, other factors that increase the risk of cholera include unplanned urbanization, conflict and climate change. These we certainly do have in Chibhoraniland. Now in view of these factors it is clear that one of the most effective and long-term solutions for the eradication of cholera lies in sustainable economic development. Poverty is killing us through cholera.
Let us therefore totally eradicate poverty in Chibhoraniland, then we will eradicate cholera. A lot of Chibhoraniland citizens are walloping in poverty but trying hard just to put food on the table with some resorting to crime as well as spiritual and ritualistic methods. Government needs to visibly and consistently play its part in terms of poverty eradication. Currently with Vision 2030 approaching fast in the next few six years people are getting poorer and poorer and will consequently continue to get sick and die from cholera and other diseases. In 2017 a global strategy for cholera control; “Ending cholera: a global roadmap to 2030’’ was launched with the aim of reducing cholera deaths by 90%. At the rate at which people are getting poorer is Chibhoraniland going to reach this target and even go further? A question for thought and action. NdiSekuru Taurai, ndangoti ndizvitaure. Musazoti handina kumbozvitaura.