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Ellen Chasokela Herald Reporter
The Southerton Constituency Community Development Trust (SCCDT) led by Cde Andrew Makahamadze last week said the expansion of the Harare Central Hospital drainage system will be completed by end of this week.

This comes after the hospital made an appeal on ZTV last year to the corporate world to help fix the drainage system which was causing serious flooding during the rainy season in the maternity and paediatric wards.

In an interview last week, Cde Makahamadze, who is the Trust’s chairman, said their desire was to upgrade the hospital into a state-of-the-art institution that offers the best services. “Last year, the hospital faced serious challenges of flooding during the rainy season and the staff had to scoop out water which was flooding the children’s hospital and the maternity section due to the small drainage system at the hospital.

“This crisis had to be addressed before the rainy season starts because previously some patients in the affected wards had to be moved to other wards during the floods.

“We want to uplift our hospital and turn it into a state-of-the-art facility so we will continue to uplift the hospital in any possible way we can.’’

Cde Makahamadze said their thrust was to harness business and communities for development. “This is why we contracted Agricura to fumigate the hospital on our behalf since it’s a company located in Southerton,” he said. “The fumigation started today with the paediatrics section, then the maternity ward followed by the other sections.”

Harare Central Hospital director of operations Mr Peter Gwata hailed the trust for fumigating the hospital.

“This will help the hospital to improve on hygiene,” he said. “We have been having problems of mosquitoes, rats, cockroaches and other pests around the hospital, so this fumigation means a lot to us.

“Now that the trust has done the fumigation, it means we have been saved from the costs of fumigating the hospital and the money will be channelled to other projects so as to continue improving the hospital facilities. We normally fumigate on a monthly basis, so for this month we are sorted.’’

The trust is starting a horticulture project at the hospital which should be functional within the next two months.

The trust last year also constructed a 2,5 million-litre water reservoir and refurbished two boreholes at the hospital.