.Wina

By SAM PHIRI –
VICE-President Inonge Wina has commended the team of ministers spearheading the fight against the cholera epidemic that has so far claimed 54 lives.
Mrs Wina said the team led by Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya had impressively mobilised resources and human support to ensure the epidemic was contained in the country.
Speaking when she inspected some ongoing contraction works for a temporal trading site at Lusaka’s BH market yesterday, Ms Wina said with the works done so far, she was confident that the fight against the disease would be a success.
She said the entire country was aware of President Edger Lungu’s directive on the massive cleanup of the city and all trading areas to avert further spread of cholera and expected well meaning Zambians to support the move.
“This disease does not have any boundaries, I have heard some people saying ‘yai uko ni ku ma yadi cholera siifika’ (those are elite places cholera can not affect them) but that is not true since cholera can kill anybody,” she said.
Ms Wina warned that the cholera epidemic was real and all Zambians should take serious health and preventive precautions regardless of their locality.
The Vice President thanked vendors whose businesses had been suspended for cooperating with men and women in uniform as they carried out their duty.
She also commended health workers who had been working round the clock for the dedication in ensuring they prevented further loss of life.
“I would also like to thank the private sector for the material support given towards this fight,” she said
The Vice-President also challenged scientists do to more research and come up with technology that would address the issue of water contamination.
She also called on the media to report responsibly as sensationalising the issue of cholera had potential of negatively affecting tourism and investment.
Meanwhile Local government and housing minister Vincent Mwale said the BH market would comprise of temporally shelters to accommodate up to 500 traders.
He said the temporal move was to help especially the vegetable traders after receiving complaints from farmers union that merchandise was going to waste.