Flooding in southern Angola has left at least 20 000 people homeless and the region is now at risk of a cholera outbreak, aid agencies said on Friday.
Valter Quifica, secretary general of the Angolan Red Cross, described the situation as ”drastic” and said thousands more people could be affected.
He told AFP the flooding in the southern province of Cunene was already worse than last year, when 25 000 people lost their homes, and said it was critical to get in supplies as soon as possible to stop the spread of disease.
”From floods like this, you get waterborne diseases like cholera and malaria,” he said. ”And this is a big worry for us.”
”The government is doing its best to get some latrines constructed and we are giving out water purification tables, oral rehydration sachets and jerry cans.”
A number of roads have been cut off and some villages and towns are only accessible by boat. Thousands of hectares of farmland have also been destroyed and many of cows and goats have drowned.
General Eugenio Laborinho, the coordinator of the Commision for Civil Protection, told state media the situation was worrying because the rain was continuing to fall and river levels were still rising.
The World Health Organisation has also despatched five tonnes of health kits and drinking water to the area, a spokesperson said.
The landlocked province of Cunene, on the Namibian border, is one of Angola’s poorest provinces where the majority of the population rely on subsistence farming. — Sapa-AFP