Cholera outbreak feared in Karonga: Council blamed for deplorable hygiene

Fears of a cholera outbreak around Karonga market with users blaming Karonga District Council officials for negligence on sanitary issues.

Kyungu inspecting Karonga main market -Photo by Tiwonge Kumwenda
Kyungu inspecting Karonga main market -Photo by Tiwonge Kumwenda
Filthy Karonga -Photo by Tiwonge Kumwenda.
Filthy Karonga -Photo by Tiwonge Kumwenda.

Cholera, which claimed three lives, hit neighbouring Kyera district of Tanzania a few weeks ago. Over 14 people were hospitalized.

But, it seems, officials at the Council are casting a blind eye on hygienic issues as those responsible for sweeping and collection of rubbish at the market have gone unpaid for two months now.

“There is no good explanation that has been given for the failure,” Godwin Ng’ambi, Karonga main market chairperson told Nyasa Times in interview.

He said it was “a worrisome situation” and more so considering the fact that “a cholera outbreak hit our Tanzanian counterparts not long ago.”

He blamed the council’s officials for “failure to provide sanitary services at the market.”

Added Ng’ambi: “Our market is literally stinking. Our plea is that the council should intervene with immediate effect.”

According to him, the misunderstanding between the council officials and their direct employees should not affect them as vendors.

“Never have we ever failed to pay our daily market fees,” he said. “But if the problem persists we will have no option but to stop paying.”

Speaking after touring the market in company of fellow chiefs, Paramount Chief Kyungu blamed council officials for not taking the lives of market users seriously.

Kyungu said he would not let his subjects suffer because of someone’s “negligence.”

“What we want now is for the council officials to look into the matter seriously. We want them to explain where the market revenue goes since they are unable to pay their employees,” said Kyungu.

The district’s chairperson on Health and Environmental Services councillor Harry Mwanyembe said the council was doing everything possible to make sure that the “market is clean.”

Meanwhile, Karonga District Health Officer Charles Sungani has appealed to the community to be hygienic in order to prevent cholera which has a life lost and twenty six cases being registered in the eastern region.

Karonga district council collects about K125 000 per day from the main market. It also has nine flea markets across the district with about fifty direct employees who include revenue collectors, watchmen, messengers and cleaners.

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Atcheya
Atcheya
8 years ago

School me, please, when did Karonga become a kingdom?

redeemed
redeemed
8 years ago

Refuse gate?

mercy Nyirongo
mercy Nyirongo
8 years ago

Karonga this Karonga that everyday but with these stories so sad when we have BIG personalities Chief Kyungu Chair National Aids Commission,Richard Msowoya Speaker National Assembly…. Now I come to believe no brains inside but talk talk eish including Timothy Mtambo and undule Mwakasungula all of them cannot work to gether to help their people I doubt their relevance in our society .Nanga failing on cholera so sad.

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