HARARE, Nov 17: Zimbabwe’s authorities have declared a state of emergency in the country’s capital, Harare, due to a cholera outbreak, Zimbabwean media reported on Friday.
Harare’s city council declared the state of emergency on Thursday, after determining that the cholera outbreak engulfed the entire city, the Newsday website reported.
Mayor Ian Makone blamed the outbreak in Harare on the lack of “adequate water supplies,” as quoted in the report.
“Many people have turned to boreholes and wells which are contaminated. What we are seeing, we last saw in 2008 when the cholera outbreak closed the city and the country,” Makone was quoted as saying.
In May, Harare Health Council Chief Prosper Chonzi officially confirmed the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe’s capital after 21 cases of infection were recorded. In October, the authorities introduced limitations in some parts of the country as new cases continued to emerge.
The 2008 outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe killed over 4,000 before the United Nations and the US Agency for International Development intervened and brought the spread of the deadly infection under control. (UNI)
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