LILLIAN CHIKANDI writes
FORMER senior headman Cuthbert Siamanyonga of Chillindi village in Chirundu has appealed to the district health office to embark on distributing chlorine to households in nearby villages to avoid contracting waterborne diseases.
Mr Siamanyonga said people in Chiliindi, Kayuni and Ng’ombe Ilede villages were currently fetching their drinking water from a highly contaminated Nkapu Dam.
He bemoaned that the people in the affected villages were just consuming the water without boiling it or treating it by adding chlorine.
He said that posed a health hazard and sadly could lead to waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea, dysentery and typhoid hence the need for the supply of chlorine.
Speaking in a telephone interview with the Sun, Mr. Siamanyonga expressed concern that the dam that was almost drying up as a source of water for the people in the area.
He said it also unfortunate that the people shared the same still water in the dam water with their livestock.
He appealed to the district health office to intensively sensitize the people especially those in rural areas on the importance of treating their drinking water.
He said some people in those areas wrongly thought that waterborne diseases could only breakout during rainy season.
