Kenyans have been urged to observe good hygiene as the El Nino expected to hit Kenya according to weather forecast by the Meteorological department will result in flooding.
Speaking on Tuesday senior public health officer in hospitals, Ms Jennifer Kamama noted that the bacteria’s responsible for causing cholera thrive in warm areas like Ruiru sub-county conditions.
She said that general cleanliness of homestead is one way of destroying the habitat of the bacteria noting that, the bacteria can thrive well in dirty and warm places. Flooding associated with El Nino increases the risk of spread of water borne diseases like cholera.
With reference to the cholera menace that has hit the country in the recent months, the public officer observed that it will be of great help if residents maintain cleanliness of their homestead to reduce the cases of cholera increase.
“If the El Nino is going to strike this place, we are not only going to experience flooding or mud slides. Cholera is also a menace we are supposed to look at as the presence of dirty water sweeping the dirt from sewages and company disposals will find their way to rivers which we source our water.” She noted.
Ms Kamama also noted that dirty water that results from flooding can find their way into the taps and rivers from which we get drinking water from increasing the risks of cholera. She therefore urged the public to maintain cleanliness of their homestead as well as theirs as the region was known to be warm.
In an article by a theoretical ecologist in the University of Michigan in 2009, Mercedes Pascual noted that, cholera in Bangladesh always hit its peak every 3.7 years and always was in line with El Nino. She further explained that to curb the increase she would liaise with the meteorological department and intensification of cholera management was sensitized to the public.
In her article she stipulated that dirt carried by water would be deposited on homesteads and due to other dirt they would be trapped adding up to the habitats of cholera causing bacteria.
Kenyans are waiting for the feedback on how to handle scenarios that would appear when El Nino hits from the meteorological department next week after the meeting which is being held in Dar es Salaam comes to an end as stipulated in an article in The Star newspaper.