Harare City Council has threatened to evict residents from Mbare Flats who have denied city health workers access to fumigate their homes, which are infested with bedbugs.
Mbare Flats, built during the colonial era, currently house thousands of families who use communal toilets and water points.
The flats are characterized by overcrowding, poor sanitation, and shared spaces, creating ideal conditions for bedbugs to thrive.
Bedbugs are insects that feed on the blood of animals and humans, with bites that can be itchy and uncomfortable.
Council officials suggest that the bedbug infestation in Mbare Flats was caused by bales of second-hand clothing stored on the premises and by poor hygiene.
Residents of Mbare Flats are currently experiencing a bedbug outbreak, prompting city officials to fumigate the premises.
However, after the first fumigation exercise, Mbare Flats residents insisted that the bedbugs were more vicious than before, suggesting the exercise was futile.
As a result, during the second round of fumigation last Tuesday, Mbare Flats residents denied city health workers access to their homes.
In a statement posted by the City of Harare on Facebook, residents who deny health workers access risk eviction.
“We have noted with concern reports that some occupiers of Mbare Flats are refusing to open their doors to City Health workers who want to fumigate their premises against bedbugs (tsikidzi).
“We encourage the residents to allow health workers immediate access to the premises or risk enforcement using police. This will also mean cancelling the current leases since the apartments are owned by the City of Harare,” the statement read.
During the first fumigation exercise, City Health Director Dr. Prosper Chonzi said poor hygiene was responsible for the spread of bedbugs.
“They do not have enough water to wash their blankets, so those blankets will harbor the bedbugs. If you don’t wash them regularly, put them out to dry in dry sunlight, and then iron them with a very high iron, you will not be able to destroy them.
“Unfortunately, they are not confined to one block of flats, so if this flat is unhygienic, they will move to the next block of flats.
“We are worried in Mbare that even if you confine them to the blocks of flats, people are very mobile. You find they buy their things here and go to Mbare National, Mbare Matapi, and in the end, you find one big area with bed bugs,” said Chonzi.
While residents have been blamed for poor hygiene, the city council is failing to supply adequate water and fix burst sewage pipes.
