Cyclone-hit Mozambique faces ‘second disaster’ from cholera
● Some survivors remain without aid ten days after Idai devastation
Cyclone-ravaged Mozambique faces a “second disaster” from cholera and other diseases, the World Health Organisation has warned.
Relief operations have begun to push into rural areas where an unknown number of people remain without aid more than ten days after the storm. Some 1.8 million people in Mozambique need urgent help after Cyclone Idai, the United Nations said in an emergency appeal to raise $282 million (£213m) for the next three months.
The cyclone was “one of the worst weather-related catastrophes in the history of Africa”, UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres told reporters in New York. He raised the spectre of hunger, saying the storm destroyed Mozambique’s crops on the eve of harvest.
The death toll remained at least 761 in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, but authorities have warned it is “very preliminary”, with more bodies expected to be found as floodwaters drain away.
And emergency responders are racing to contain deadly diseases such as cholera, which authorities have said will break out as more than a quarter-million displaced people are sheltering in camps with little or no clear water and sanitation. Many wells were contaminated by the floods.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said 900,000 oral cholera vaccines were expected to arrive later this week. Cholera is caused by eating contaminated food or drinking water and can kill within
hours. Cases of diarrhoea have been reported.
The WHO it is also expecting a “spike” in malaria cases in Mozambique, as the diseasecarrying mosquitoes breed in standing water.
“We must not let these people suffer a second disaster through a serious disease outbreak or inability to access essential health services. They have suffered enough,” Dr. Djamila Cabral, the WHO Repicopter
resentative in Mozambique, told reporters.
She said people in camps were living in “horrific conditions” and that about 55 health centres had been severely damaged.
Aid continued to arrive, including much-needed air support. The World Food Program received $280,000 from the European Union to support the deployment of a UN Humanitarian Air Service hel- that will deliver assistance to the two worst-hit districts in Zimbabwe, Chimanimani and Chipinge.
A field hospital was being set up in Beira and another is arriving later this week, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said. A sanitation system to serve some 22,000 people has arrived and a water purification unit to serve some 25,000 people is expected to arrive on Wednesday.
The scale of the destruction is becoming clearer as the days pass. The cyclone destroyed all houses in the village of Metuchira, home to nearly 38,000 people.
Amid the relief efforts, grieving people in Mozambique struggled to bury the dead.
“Efforts are under way to improve management of dead bodies, as mortuary facilities were either destroyed and/ or lack enough facilities and capacity,” the UN humanitarian agency said.