Some Ibadan residents said on Tuesday that the cholera outbreak had compelled them to reconsider their eating habits and develop mechanisms to keep up with the situation.

They stated this in separate interviews.

A mechanic at the Scout Camp area of the town, Wale Adeyemi, said others like him felt hit the most being artisans.

According to him, since artisans rarely cook at work, they depend on food vendors.

“One can’t expect people like us to cook when we are at our workshops. We buy food to eat as the only food most of us have at home is dinner. We have food hawkers who come daily to sell to us, but now, many of us don’t patronise them again.

“Now, as my wife is packing the food for the children, she’s packing mine along. I also take garri and groundnuts or bread to ensure I have at least two meals at work.

“I’m not buying food from anyone until the government will announce there’s no more cholera in Ibadan,” he said.

A pepper seller at Challenge, Basirat Lawal, likens this period to the days of COVID-19, as she recalls the precautionary measures of the COVID-19 days being replayed.

Ms Lawal says she’s practising regular handwashing and mindful of where she buys her cooked foods.

“Since I heard about the cholera incident and learnt it started from drinking tiger nuts, I have stopped buying zobo from my customer. If I don’t bring food from home, I buy food from just one person because I trust her cooking hygiene, or I simply buy bread and coke. My children need me healthy and alive because they are still young,” she said.

Meanwhile, a barber, Ahmeed Yinusa, described the experience of restraining himself from eating from different sources as the toughest in his over thirty years of existence.

“One of the toughest things on earth is seeing food and not being able to eat it because that’s the fastest way to contact cholera. I won’t lie, it is not easy for me. Well, maybe it wouldn’t have been this tough if I had been married. I hope the government are proactive in ensuring that this situation ends soonest,” he said.

Opeyemi Aboderin said she used hand sanitiser after exchanging customer items or documents in the bank.

“I know hand sanitisers are not 100 per cent effective as using water and soap, but looking at my environment, going back and forth to the washroom is not possible.

“To stay healthy, I now wake up a bit earlier than before to prepare food that I’ll have as lunch. This is, however, not convenient considering the nature of my work,” she said.

(NAN)