GABORONE, 12 February 2009 (IRIN) - n late January and early February 2009, Botswana's parastatal, the Water Utilities Corporation (WUC), found traces of vibrio cholerae bacteria in the Shashe reservoir near Tonota village, about 35km south of Francistown, the country's second city, and in Letsibogo Dam near Mmadinare, about 25km northwest of the mining town, Selebi Phikwe.
The dams have been decommissioned and the surrounding areas put on high alert, but among residents there is a growing suspicion that the authorities are covering up a cholera outbreak, as both water sources lie close to Zimbabwe, where 3,513 people have died and 73,105 cases of the disease have been recorded in the past six months.
"It is obvious there is already a cholera outbreak, but the ministry is just trying to do some public relations to contain the situation," Lebogang Thutlwe, originally from Mmadinare but now living in Selebi Phikwe, told IRIN.
It is obvious there is already a cholera outbreak, but the ministry is just trying to do some public relations to contain the situation"I was at the village last week, and people are very disturbed. The WUC guys just told us the area was now on high alert, but they do not want to tell us where the bacteria is coming from. Maybe it is already in the village."
The Mmadinare representative in parliament is Ponatshego Kedikilwe, the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, but all media enquiries were directed to the WUC.
According to an update by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on 9 February, "The numbers of people affected by cholera in Botswana and Namibia are but a few."
The WUC has not disclosed the source of the cholera, but Thutlwe is convinced the disease arrived with an "illegal immigrant from Zimbabwe". "I have no doubt this is the case - there are many Zimbabweans here, and most often they bring lots of stuff infested with cholera."
Zimbabwe's downward spiral under the stewardship of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party has seen millions of its citizens head to neighbouring states to escape hyperinflation, food shortages that are afflicting more than half the population, and the cholera outbreak.
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