IRIN examines risk of waterborne diseases in Zimbabwe

Jan 6 2012

IRIN examines how a lack of sanitation facilities and access to clean water, as well as the onset of the rainy season, are increasing the risk of waterborne diseases in rural areas of Zimbabwe. A 2009 survey, "compiled by the government and U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), listed diarrhea as one of the major causes of infant mortality resulting in around 4,000 deaths in Zimbabwe annually" and "showed a 20 percent increase in under-five mortality since 1990," IRIN writes.

The U.N.'s December 2011 Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) for Zimbabwe "said 'a third of rural Zimbabweans still drink from unprotected water sources and are thus exposed to waterborne diseases,' and noted reports of cholera cases in rural Chipinge, in the eastern province of Manicaland, and Chiredzi in the southeast of the country," IRIN notes (1/3).