Zimbabwe declared a national emergency over a cholera epidemic and the collapse of its health care system, and state media reported on Thursday the government is seeking more international help to pay for food and drugs to combat the crisis.
The failure of the Southern African nation’s health care system is one of the most devastating effects of the country’s overall economic collapse.
Facing the highest inflation in the world, Zimbabweans are struggling just to eat and find clean drinking water. The United Nations says cholera has killed more than 500 people across the country since August because of a lack of water treatment and broken sewage pipes.
Still, residents are getting little help from the government, which has been paralysed since disputed March elections as President Robert Mugabe and the opposition wrangle over a power-sharing deal.
”Our central hospitals are literally not functioning,” Minister of Health David Parirenyatwa said Wednesday at a meeting of government and international aid officials, according to the state-run Herald newspaper.
International aid agencies and donors must step up their response, said Matthew Cochrane, regional spokesperson for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
”This is about supporting the people of Zimbabwe,” Cochrane said on Thursday, adding that aid should include water treatment plants and more medical staff.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, long among Mugabe’s sharpest critics, agreed that Zimbabwe was facing a national emergency and nations must step in to help.
”Mugabe’s failed state is no longer willing or capable of protecting its people,” Brown said in a statement Thursday. ”The international community’s differences with Mugabe will not prevent us doing so — we are increasing our development aid, and calling on others to follow.”
Britain has offered £3-million ($4,4-million) and set aside a further £7-million ($10,25-million) in relief aid for Zimbabwe to provide medicine, fund basic health services and help prevent more cholera outbreaks.
The European Commission is providing more than $12-million for drugs and clean water and the International Red Cross shipped in more supplies on Wednesday to fight the cholera outbreak.
The Herald said the government declared the state of emergency at Wednesday’s meeting, and appealed for money to pay for food, drugs, hospital equipment and salaries for doctors and nurses.
Walter Mzembi, the deputy water minister, said his ministry has only enough chemicals to treat water nationally for 12 more weeks.
High levels of cholera are common in the region, but Cochrane said it was hitting a population already weakened by hunger and poverty. The death toll could be much higher than the official figures, he added, because many deaths in rural areas were not being recorded at medical facilities.
Increasing numbers of Zimbabweans are also seeking cholera treatment in South Africa.
Besides shortages of food and other basics, even cash is scarce.
A new 100-million Zimbabwean dollar note went into circulation on Thursday in an attempt to ease the cash crunch, and the daily withdrawal limit was increased to Z$100-million a week — enough to buy just over 40 liters of clean water.
The new bills and withdrawal limits sparked long lines at banks on Thursday. – Sapa-AP