Humanitarian community tackles cholera outbreak

The Burundi Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) presented on Monday a coordinated plan to counter the latest cholera outbreak, the UN agency reported. Two cholera-related deaths and 101 cases have been recorded since the outbreak began on 17 June in Bujumbura Mairie, the city centre. Monday's presentation to the humanitarian community comes after OCHA convened a special joint meeting on Friday, involving representatives from the UN, the government and the NGO community. "Coordination and technical follow-up led by OCHA was emphasised and agreed," Nicholas McGowan, OCHA's information officer, told IRIN. The number of deaths has so far been contained, partly due to the swift response by Médecins Sans Frontières-Belgium (MSF-B). However, MSF-B expressed concern on Friday that the epidemic had continued to spread last week - up 34 cases from 66. MSF-B and MSF-France, in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross and Gruppo di Volontariato Civile, were continuing to provide assistance. "Clearly, at this stage, the priority of the humanitarian community is to contain the spread of the disease," McGowan said. Speaking at Friday's meeting, Bujumbura Rurale's provincial doctor announced that an additional 13 cases in Rushubi, and 14 in Nyambuye, had been identified. Treatment measures will now include immediate distribution of water purification tablets and the long-term decontamination of the Nyakabugu river. In the worst-affected areas of Gihosha and Gikungu, where most of the cases have been recorded, only one water pump supplies 3,500 people. OCHA announced that it would work with the government water authority, REGIDESO, to install a temporary water tank this week. Both the local water sources - the Kingurube and the Nyamivuba creeks - are contaminated. A plan has been developed that will include their decontamination as soon as the water level rises and facilitates the necessary work. The situation in Burundi reflects mounting concern worldwide that unless urgent action is taken now, by 2020 some 400 million Africans will lack safe drinking water, and about 600 million will be without hygienic sanitation. McGowan also said that Burundi was struggling to meet many of the UN's Millennium Development Goals by 2015. "One of the goals states that by 2015 the number of people without access to safe water should be halved. If these goals are not met, it will mean that hundreds of thousands of Burundians will continue to be at risk from serious diseases and infections such as cholera," he said.