ANGOLA, The Threat of Cholera
Surrounded by buckets, cans and plastic basins waiting to be filled with water, Susana Neto and Catarina Figereiro can hardly keep up with the demand at a roadside water distribution point in Boa Vista, one of Luanda's shantytowns.
It is here that Angola's worst ever cholera outbreak started in February, largely due to shortage of clean water and poor sanitation. It's this overcrowded area which enabled the epidemic spread quickly to other parts of the country.
“We had many deaths in this neighborhood,” says Ms. Figereiro who, like Ms. Neto, is a member of the block association that helps with the water distribution here, “but there are much fewer now and luckily, nobody in my family got sick.”
UNICEF, WHO and other key partners who have been on the ground since the onset of the outbreak have supported government efforts to counter the epidemic by distributing clean drinking water, chlorine to sanitize water supplies, emergency medical supplies and social mobilization material.
According to Ms. Figereiro, these interventions are working. She attributes the decline in deaths to the supply of safe water and door-to-door campaigns by volunteers who distribute soap, bleach and leaflets telling families how to avoid cholera and what to do when someone falls ill.
Yet, cholera is persisting and while the number of cases in Luanda and the other most affected provinces is currently decreasing, the epidemic continues to spread to new parts of the country.
So far, the disease has made 39,685 people sick and killed 1,486 in 13 of Angola's 18 provinces. The government reports over 300, sometimes more, new cases each day, and more than 35 per cent of those stricken are estimated to be children under five.
UNICEF continues to work with government and other partners to battle the disease and is accelerating both technical assistance and provision of supplies to Luanda and provincial authorities. Several donors have stepped in and pledged additional funding to support UNICEF's efforts to contain the outbreak.
Development plans
According to UNICEF and WHO, 50 percent of Angolans do not have access to safe water and only 30 percent are using adequate sanitation facilities. As a result of 30 years of war, millions of people displaced by the fighting live in deplorable conditions in overcrowded peri-urban areas. Cleaning up these slums will take time and commitment, in addition to money.
“We know that the chlorination of water trucked into these areas is not enough in the long run,” says Odette Pedro Trigo of the government's National Water Directorate. “What we need are expanded water supply systems that reach the people.”
UNICEF/ HQ02-0307/Giacomo Pirozzi
Concerned by the persistent spread of the epidemic, the President of Angola recently issued a decree calling for a consolidated plan to improve and expand water supply systems and garbage collection within 6 to 12 months, and to speed up the resettlement of residents in cholera-affected areas.
A 'wake-up call'
“The cholera outbreak in Angola is a painful reminder of the threat facing more than one billion people who have no access to clean water sources worldwide,” says Akhil Iyer, UNICEF Senior Program Officer in Luanda. “And, as is the case far too often, it is the young who suffer most.” According to Mr. Iyer, the crisis should be a 'wake-up call' to the world. “We have to act now if we want to meet the United Nations Millennium Goal to cut by half the number of people without clean water and sanitation by the year 2015.”
In Porto Pesqueiro, down the road from the Boa Vista water distribution point, an empty emergency water tank is baking in the sun, next to a line of empty canisters. A group of children playing on a garbage dump nearby say that there hasn't been any water for two days. “But the water truck will come soon,” they add confidently.
