Katutura Hospital without water once again
editOn Wednesday afternoon,the giant Katutura State Hospital situated in Windhoek,Namibia was again without water for the nineteenth time.A situation that caused panic and great concern in many different segments of the health sector.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
Consequences
editThis meant that sterile bottled water had to be used,use of toilet was limited and only emergency operations could be performed in theaters.Patients could not even bath and have proper meals.Several units such as dentistry remained closed because there was no water.Family and friends of patients were being forced to bring water to the hospital in attempt to assist with the problem.The ministry of Health and Social Services had to supply the hospital with water in drums which they were adviced to use in toilets only.Patient had to go beg for water outside the hospital.Some patient decided to flee from the hospital with their bad health condition.The senior medical superintendent of the hospital,Dr Georg Judmann described the situation as a very chronic problem.He further cited that most of the 40 year old hospital pipes are rusted.The situation required action by the health department since patients'wounds were not cleaned,this spread infection and posed a serious risk to patients lives.The toilets were clogged and started smelling bad,creating an Unhygienic Environment,even the wards were smelling that night.
The renovation project
editTo avoid emergency treatments being halted and patients health deteorating,the hospital management were restless in restoring the water supply. A 20 month renovation project is underway in which the pipes will be utterly overhauled,upon completion of this project will the problem only be resolved.Meanwhile,the water supply was restored by Thursday,4 October afternoon.
Conclusion
editSince this is the nineteenth time this is happening,i'll say the government has been too ignorant and irresponsible.This is a very serious issue so those pipes must have been replaced long ago to avoid such inconvenience.Instead,they spend money on less important things like the building of the new state house.Maintenance is very important.Every hospital should have a contigency plan for situation where there is water or even electricity.The fixing of things like water pipes and other things that put the lives at risk are suppose to be regarded as an emergency.Infrastructure decay should not be allowed.