Zimbabwe declares cholera national emergency
HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) — The Zimbabwean government has declared a national emergency in the face of a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 560 people, the state-owned newspaper The Herald said Thursday.
A shortage of clean drinking water has unleashed a cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe.
Harare also appealed for help for its hospitals, which Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said “are literally not functioning.”
“Our staff is demotivated and we need your support to ensure that they start coming to work and our health system is revived,” he said at a meeting of donors including United Nations agencies, embassies and non-governmental institutions, The Herald reported.
Cholera cases are on the increase in nine of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned Wednesday. It blamed “poor water and sanitation supply, a collapsed health system and limited government capacity to respond to the emergency.”
OCHA said the water-borne outbreak had killed at least 565 people and sickened more than 11,000. 
See more about Zimbabwe’s cholera crisis »
In Harare province, more than one in four people to contract the disease had died and there were nearly 7,000 new cases, OCHA said.
The health crisis is taking place against a background of increased security in the face of expected runs on banks.
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Armored cars patrolled the streets of Zimbabwe’s capital and residents flocked to banks Thursday after limits on cash withdrawals were lifted in the inflation-ravaged African nation.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had capped maximum daily withdrawals at 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars — about 25 U.S. cents, and about a quarter of the price of a loaf of bread. But faced with mounting chaos in a country already in economic free fall, the bank decided last week to raise that limit to 100 million dollars ($50 U.S.) per week.
Soldiers were deployed to all banks in anticipation of throngs of people lining up to withdraw money Thursday, when the increase took effect. Wednesday, police chased depositors away and arrested union leaders who planned to protest the limits.
Zimbabwe’s inflation rate of 231 million percent is the world’s highest.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions said 69 people were arrested across the country during Wednesday’s demonstrations. Amnesty International has demanded to know the whereabouts of human rights activist Jestina Mukoko. The group said Mukoko was abducted at dawn Wednesday by armed men in plainclothes posing as police.
And angry, unpaid soldiers clashed with foreign currency exchangers and some civilians Monday, three days after troops who had failed to get cash from their banks looted shops they suspected to be illegally dealing in foreign currency
HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) — A group of Zimbabwean citizens are taking a government department to court for failing to provide them with adequate and safe drinking water as the country’s cholera-related death toll nears 400.
Cholera patients wait for treatment at Budiriro Polyclinic in Harare.
A group from Chitungwiza, a residential area of Harare, filed an application Friday in the High Court suing the government-run Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), which is responsible for supplying water in the beleaguered nation.
“Due to their lack of diligence and constant supplies of clean water to my place of residence, diseases like cholera surfaced and people are dying,” said Arthur Taderera, the chairman of the Chitungwiza Residents and Rate Payers Association, in his affidavits to the court.
“There are large pools of raw sewage in our streets posing danger to young children and also ourselves. There is nothing we can do, as the respondent (ZINWA) has exclusive jurisdiction and control over all water resources.
“It is an offense for me to fix the sewer system on my own because that is the prerogative of the respondent.”
Zimbabwe is experiencing its worst humanitarian crisis since attaining independence from Britain 28 years ago.
A cholera epidemic broke out in September in Chitungwiza, about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) southeast of Harare. The water-borne disease has so far claimed the lives of nearly 400 people and has since spread to South Africa.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday there have been more than 9,500 reported cases of cholera in Zimbabwe.
Medical professionals blame the cholera resurgence on the lack of safe water in many parts of Zimbabwe, the ICRC said. In some areas, residents have to take water from shallow wells or other contaminated sources like rivers, because taps are dry most of the time.
“The current rainy season is another factor,” said Sendra Eigenheer Fust, a water and sanitation engineer with the ICRC in Harare. “Rainwater on the ground is easy to collect, making it a tempting source of drinking water. The problem is that it may be contaminated.”
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Almost a decade of economic meltdown has made it impossible for Harare to import adequate chemicals to treat water.
Unemployment estimated at 90 percent and the official inflation rate is 231 million percent — the highest in the world. The United Nations says about half of Zimbabwe’s population is in urgent need of food aid.
A power-sharing deal between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition, signed in September months after the disputed presidential election, has failed to take off.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has refused to form the government of national unity, accusing Mugabe of grabbing all the key ministries such as foreign affairs, local government, finance, home affairs and defense.
The government of national unity was seen by many as the only springboard for Zimbabwe out of its economic quagmire.
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All About Morgan Tsvangirai • Robert Mugabe • Jimmy Carter • Zimbabwe
By JIRAIR RATEVOSIAN
Imagine for just a moment hospitals shutting down in downtown Los Angeles, dead bodies sprinkled over Sunset Boulevard, free-flowing water and electricity a figment of the imagination and Governor Schwarzenegger intentionally blocking humanitarian relief and food aid into the crumbling state. Something so unimaginable can never happen in this day and age, right? Wrong.
Zimbabwe, a county of 13 million people in southern Africa has been on the brink of collapse for some time now. However, just over the last two weeks, a complete collapse of the health system and sanitation infrastructure has given way to a major cholera epidemic spreading throughout the country, and a breakdown in delivery of medications for HIV-AIDS, TB, malaria and chronic illness.
The government’s obstructionism is speeding up the massive loss of life. Just this weekend, a group including former U.N. chief Kofi Annan and former U.S. President Carter had to cancel a humanitarian assessment visit to Zimbabwe when the Mugabe government refused them visas, making travel to the country impossible. The New York Times reported that “Mr. Mugabe’s decision to forbid a visit by (the group), was a measure of the Zimbabwean leader’s disdain for international opinion at a time when deepening hunger, raging hyperinflation and the collapse of health, sanitation and education services have crippled Zimbabwe”.
The situation is so out of hand that health workers from Harare Central and Parirenyatwa Hospitals took the courageous step of publicly protesting this week against the state of the public health system. They gathered in the street, calling for an urgent response to the situation. However, riot police forcefully dispersed the hundreds of doctors, nurses and other health workers who had assembled to protest poor salaries and working conditions. In fact, according to this BBC report, riot police sealed the exits of the country’s main referral hospital, Parirenyatwa, to prevent staff including doctors, specialists, nurses and engineers from marching into the city center. “Undeterred by such threats, we continued marching but we were thoroughly beaten by the members of the police force which effectively ended the demonstration, but we believe our voices were heard!” said one Information Officer for the Zimbabwe Health Students’ Network.
The health situation in Zimbabwe, which has been declining for years, is now untenable. Public health workers in Harare report that due to lack of medicine, equipment, services, and staff, public hospitals and clinics are essentially closed, resulting in preventable deaths. There is no access to care for those who cannot afford private clinics. The only maternity hospital in the capital is also closed. Patients with fractures, meningitis and other acute and dangerous conditions are being sent home, according to another medical source.
According to the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, a non-partisan and non-political professional association for doctors and other health professionals in Zimbabwe, authorities closed indefinitely the country’s most prominent medical school and sent students away. Essential medicines are unavailable to treat the very diseases that the government’s gross negligence has exacerbated. Anti-retroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS patients and TB treatment for chronically ill patients has been severely disrupted.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, reproached the Harare government for failing to maintain the health infrastructure. The deteriorating water and sanitation system has led to a cholera epidemic spreading throughout the country and daily death tolls are on the rise. Nearly 300 people have died in Zimbabwe in recent weeks in the cholera outbreak which has hit about 6,000 people, the The World Health Organization told the BBC last Friday.
Fresh water is no longer pumped into urban areas, which will only exacerbate the spread of this infectious disease caused by contaminated water. One doctor at Harare hospital described the situation as a “disaster of unimaginable proportions.”
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), in a press release issued on November 19 stated, “Given the continued gross negligence of the government of Zimbabwe and the callous disregard for the safety and wellbeing of its citizens, together with the dire signs of impending lethal epidemic disease, the Zimbabwe government must admit its failure to manage the national health system and seek assistance from the international community.” The organization is calling on governments of the world to act with the utmost urgency. PHR is circulating a petition this week to urge Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to take decisive action immediately.
Diplomatic isolation and economic sanctions against the Mugabe regime have thus far failed to curtail widespread and systematic human rights violations including willful denial of health care and obstruction of humanitarian aid as well as mass killing, forced displacement, torture and arbitrary arrest. The current government has acted with impunity and must be held to account. “We have been left uncertain of our future which we have sweated for all these years and hopes of emancipating ourselves have been shattered,” stated the Information Officer for Zimbabwe Health Students’ Network.
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CARTER CALLS ZIMBABWE BASKET CASE (Nov 28 2008)
(CNN) — Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Wednesday that Zimbabwe is in shambles and warned that deaths from starvation and a cholera outbreak threaten to surge with the rainy season approaching.
A man carries a relative in a wheelbarrow to a cholera clinic in Harare on Tuesday.
Bemoaning Zimbabwe’s decline is a familiar refrain for the embattled head of the Movement for Democratic Change. His most recent remarks, however, were backed by former President Carter, who returned from a five-day trip to neighboring South Africa this week and declared Zimbabwe “a basket case.”
Tsvangirai also expressed frustration with attempts to form a unity government between his group and the ruling Zanu-PF party. He said he has asked that South African ex-President Thabo Mbeki recuse himself as mediator between the two parties.
The Zimbabwean government quickly countered Tsvangirai’s allegations that President Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF were responsible for the problems gripping the country.
“The government is very committed to ensure that the humanitarian crisis is addressed. It would be wrong for the MDC to blame it on the government,” Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said.
Addressing Tsvangirai’s allegations that cholera deaths could soon top 50 a day and that the Mugabe-led government seems intent on covering it up, Mumbengegwi noted that Zimbabwe is not the only country where cholera is a problem. Watch why world leaders call the situation in Zimbabwe shocking »
“No government would want its people to suffer. Cholera is not peculiar to Zimbabwe,” he said. “We hear it is now in South Africa, too, but we cannot relax because of that. We have to fight it as Zimbabweans.”
A report in the state-run Herald newspaper Wednesday said the government has kicked off an information campaign to inform citizens of “the do’s and don’ts to combat the disease.”
The government is also drilling boreholes to find clean, subterranean water that can be pumped to the surface for drinking and bathing, the Herald reported.
The World Health Organization said last week that almost 300 people have died of cholera since August and more than 6,000 cases have been reported.
Tsvangirai said Wednesday that conditions would worsen this month as the rainy season brings steamy downpours to much of Zimbabwe, especially the eastern mountain forests.
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Carter, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Graca Machel, wife of former South Africa President Nelson Mandela — all of whom belong to a group of world leaders called the Elders — had hoped to visit Zimbabwe on their recent trip to the region but were denied visas, according to Tsvangirai and a statement from the Carter Center.
“Mr. Mugabe would prefer that the suffering that he and Zanu-PF have caused, and continue to cause, remains in the dark,” Tsvangirai said in a statement, adding that because the Movement for Democratic Change and Zanu-PF cannot form a partnership after months of wrangling, “the MDC must instead work with those Zimbabwean organizations, groups and individuals to address the humanitarian crisis.”
The humanitarian problems illustrate the political quagmire in Zimbabwe, where a power-sharing agreement that Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed in September has yet to take effect.
Carter issued a statement Tuesday condemning what he said was Harare’s decision to renege on an agreement to allow him, Annan and Machel into the country. He also offered a damning assessment of the Mugabe regime.
“After almost three decades of governmental corruption, mismanagement and oppression, Zimbabwe has become a basket case, an embarrassment to the region and a focus of international concern and condemnation,” he said.
Denied passage to Zimbabwe, Carter, Annan and Machel were left to consult with regional leaders — including Tsvangirai, Botswana President Ian Khama and South Africa President Kgalema Motlanthe — as well as United Nations officials, nongovernmental organizations and Zimbabwe’s civil leaders.
“We had a complete and balanced agenda and more frank discussions than would have been possible in the oppressive and restrained environment of Harare,” Carter said in his statement.
Carter said he learned of conditions in which the official inflation rate has soared to about 231 million percent while thousands of Zimbabweans stand in line for their daily allowance of about 2 cents a day — from their own bank accounts. The allowance does not afford them a half loaf of bread, he said.
Teachers, who earn about a dollar a month, report a student-textbook ratio of about 20-to-1, and school attendance has dropped to about 20 percent in the past three months, the former president reported. The few students still attending classes are generally doing so in the hopes of being fed, he said.
“Meanwhile, top government officials and other privileged people can exchange Zim money at a favorable rate that is several thousand times more than the official rate available to other citizens,” Carter said. “They profit greatly from these monetary transactions and shop in special stores.”
The nation’s four major hospitals have shut down, as roughly 3,500 AIDS victims are dying each week. Unchecked sewage and filthy water have compounded the cholera problem, and Zimbabwe’s death rate from the disease is 10 times greater than rates in areas where treatment is available, Carter said.
The former president said 19,000 Zimbabweans are fleeing the country each month, mostly to South Africa and Botswana. He estimated that 4 million people have fled the nation.
“The middle class is departing, leaving behind the extremely poor and the small elite group around Mugabe who are profiting from the economic disaster,” he said.
Comparing Zimbabwe to Somalia, a failed African state that has had no functional government since 1991, Carter cast blame on African leaders who fail “to confront Robert Mugabe and force him to accept the result of the March election and more recently to comply with negotiated political agreements to share governmental authority with Morgan Tsvangirai and the opposition party.”
Tsvangirai snared more votes than Mugabe in March’s election but not a majority. Tsvangirai dropped out of a subsequent runoff, citing widespread violence against MDC supporters.
Carter’s call for African leaders to step up pressure on Mugabe came a day before Tsvangirai asked South Africa’s Mbeki to bow out as mediator between the MDC and Zanu-PF.
“Sadly, the negotiations have also been hampered by the attitude and position of the facilitator, Mr. Thabo Mbeki. He does not appear to understand how desperate the problem in Zimbabwe is, and the solutions he proposes are too small,” Tsvangirai said in his statement.
“He is not serving to bring the parties together because he does not understand what needs to be done. In addition, his partisan support of Zanu-PF, to the detriment of genuine dialogue, has made it impossible for the MDC to continue negotiating under his facilitation.”
Asked for the Zimbabwe government’s reaction to the MDC asking Mbeki to recuse himself, Foreign Minister Mumbengegwi said, “We have no right to tell them who to complain about. It is their decision in the MDC.”
Unless African leaders can find a way to mitigate the political impasse in Zimbabwe, the United Nations or the African Union might need to enter the fray, because, Carter said, “the poisonous effects” of the Mugabe regime, including the cholera outbreak, are spilling into other African nations.
Food, medicine and monetary donations should be sent immediately to humanitarian agencies such as CARE, World Vision and Save the Children, Carter said, advising that it is unwise to send cash directly to people in Zimbabwe.
“It is counterproductive to contribute money that can be confiscated by the Zimbabwe government,” he said.
