My friend Mark, who has a PhD in history and an emphasis on water issues, and whose name I am not going to release for what I hope are obvious reasons, has this report on the cholera situation there:
Although cholera which ravaged Zimbabwe in 2008/9 has been brought under control especially after the intervention of the donor community – the International Federation of the Red Cross/IFRC; UN agencies such as the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), WHO and UNICEF as well as Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) etc – the potential for another outbreak continues to exist. Service delivery in the water sector is still nightmarish. The potential for persistent outbreaks has often been predicted by UNICEF because water supply and sanitary conditions have not significantly changed since last year. Harare and Chitungwiza residents for example have, in the absence of water, resorted to the bush system and are drawing water from unprotected sources and as usual cholera outbreaks are likely to escalate with the onset of the rains.
The situation is already pointing to another major outbreak. Apparently, a senior government official has admitted the death of five people and the infection of 30 more people in the most recent outbreak recorded in October 2009 mainly in the Mashonaland West and Midlands provinces of Zimbabwe. The current wave of cholera started in September in Chipinge (Manicaland province). However, the severity of the water-borne disease could be limited this time around due to the fact that UNICEF is still very much on the ground although WHO and the Red Cross seem to have retracted. The Global Political Agreement (GPA)-brokered Government of National Unity’s (GNU) financial capacity and its efforts in luring medical professionals back into the hospitals which last year (2008) resembled deserted places could act as a major factor in limiting the impact of cholera now. It is disconcerting to note though that the imminent signs of disintegration of the GNU will spell disaster for the nation if another epidemic of last year’s proportions were to recur.
I trust this friend absolutely and without qualification.
