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Sibongile Maruta Herald Reporter
Zimbabwe’s second largest mobile network provider NetOne on Tuesday conducted a massive clean-up campaign in Budiriro 5 as part of its contribution to the fight against cholera.

The mobile services company also provided one million litres of clean water to the affected areas.

The clean-up campaign ran under the theme: “#Impacting lives with One million litres and #Clean water, clean environment, healthy communities”.

In an interview with The Herald, NetOne’s chief commercial officer Mr Brian Mutandiro said they had identified six areas to set up the storage tanks, which would be placed under the custody of the schools and churches to ensure their security and easy access to clean water by the communities.

“NetOne committed to supplying one million litres of clean water to areas affected by the cholera outbreak in Harare,” he said.

“We are demonstrating our oneness with the community. In the process we realised an acute shortage of water storage tanks. As part of our community initiative to supply clean water, we have purchased six storage 10 000 litre tanks for the six identified areas such as Budiriro 5 Satelite Clinic, Budiriro 1 Primary School, St Faith’s Anglican Church Budiriro, Matapi Police in Mbare, Assemblies of God Budiriro 5B, Budiriro 2 Secondary School.

“We have dedicated the entire day today to come and help in this massive clean-up campaign starting here at Current Shopping Centre in Budiriro 5 and other places like Glen View and Mbare. We want to show the people that they are not alone and that together we can conquer this challenge that they are facing.”

NetOne executive director marketing communications Dr Eldrett Shereni said as NetOne, they launched the cent-for-cent initiative, where one cent for every SMS sent would be channelled towards the fight against cholera.

“We are also going to hold regular clean-up campaigns in these areas and others outside Harare,” she said.

“The clean-up campaigns will run concurrently with road shows to raise awareness on preventing and eradicating cholera. We will continue to advocate for good sanitation in the communities through road shows and SMS alerts.

“We believe that what we are doing will go a long way in complementing the fight against the spread of water-borne diseases like cholera and typhoid that are directly linked to hygiene and a clean environment. I urge Zimbabweans to embrace hygiene to help curb the spread of the disease across the country.”

Residents in Budiriro expressed gratitude for the interventions made by Government, corporates and organisation in fighting cholera.