The United Nations has warned of a serious waterborne disease outbreak such as Cholera and malaria in Mozambique. This comes as flood waters are starting to rescind and some roads are being cleared and re-opened.
Mozambique was hit by the devastating cyclone Idai over a week ago.
More than a week since cyclone Idai made its deadly landfall. The city of Beira in Mozambique still resembles a disaster zone while deadly waters start to rescind.
The people are not out of danger yet as there are now serious threats of waterborne diseases.
United Nations’s Sebastian Rhodes Stampa says, “Where there is a huge dump of water then there is a risk of waterborne disease, first and foremost diarrhea, if you living in the fields with no coping mechanisms diarrhea can kill people, we are enhancing disease surveillance, we treating and we are essentially doing a massive health promotion and education so people don’t drink dirty water. Malaria is a massive problem, this is a malaria prone region, the climate is such at the moment people are susceptible to bite.”
Many other humanitarian agencies including the South African National Defence Force are assisting in the fight against disease outbreak.
Due to the increased threat of waterborne disease the South African national defence force and other aid agencies are setting up these temporary clinics all over Beira to assist those that have been affected by the cyclone
Stampa says it will take months before Mozambique is back on its feet again.
“The work is not done and we won’t be done for months, the easy answer we will be here for as long at the Mozambican government wants us here, i would expect the emergency operations to last at least three months.”
The current death toll in that country is estimated at around 450 with many predicting a sharp increase in the coming days.
