Wed, 21 Feb 2018 15:00:56 +0000
By SIMON MUNTEMBA
GOVERNMENT has disclosed that it disbursed over K 64 million to fight the cholera epidemic which broke out last year and claimed 85 lives.
Minister of Health, Dr. Chitalu Chilufya said the money meant was drawn from the treasury.
Dr Chilufya said this yesterday in Parliament during the second session of the Twelfth national assembly.
Dr Chilufya was responding to Ikelenge Member of Parliament, Elijah Muchima, who wanted to know how much money came from cooperating partners and the treasury to fight the cholera epidemic.
He explained that while a lot of cooperating partners donated assorted materials to fight the epidemic, government released K64 Million towards containing the water borne disease.
“The treasury released K64 Million towards the response while some cooperating partners supported in kind by donating for instance oral vaccines, protective equipment and water tanks.
“And I must emphasise that there were a lot of donations that came mostly in kind. You could also see a check of K1.5 Million but it was meant for procurement of tanks and the donors would actually buy the tanks directly from the supplier and give them to us,” Dr Chilufya stated.
He said in terms quantifying the figures that came from the donor community, his ministry was still compiling data.
And Dr Chilufya told Parliament that the nation was at the verge of containing the cholera epidemic adding that due to compliance which he rated at 80 percent, the public Universities that were closed will soon be opened.
“There are many things which were required to be addressed in terms of water and sanitation, and I must report that a lot of them have been addressed and we have already advised the ministry of higher education which will soon issue a policy statement on the exact date when the schools will be opened,” he said.
He said it was imperative for the government to close the learning institutions to protect the lives of students and workers in the wake of cholera outbreak.
Dr Chilufya also said the government had put in place intervention measures to control and end the outbreak such as the multi-sectoral response in which the national level committee had been meeting nearly on a daily basis to coordinate efforts since the outbreak was declared.
He said other preventive measures include oral cholera vaccination campaign, health education, environmental management and case management among others.
