Oxfam Regional Director for Southern Africa Charles Abani said Mugabe's
administration should declare the cholera outbreak a national disaster
so that international aid can be mobilised to address the outbreak.
The government of Zimbabwe should declare the current cholera epidemic
a national health emergency so that urgent national and international
aid can be mobilised to address the outbreak, Abani said in a
statement released late Tuesday.
Zimbabwe central bank governor Gideon Gono a fortnight ago dismissed
similar demands by local health expects for the government to declare
the cholera outbreak a national disaster which would pave way for other
players, in particular relief agencies, to mobilise needed resources to
combat the disease.
Gono, in charge of government finances, said the Harare administration had enough resources to contain the spread of cholera.
However, a critical shortage of medicines and drugs has seen the
government fail to contain the cholera outbreak that has spread to nine
of the country's 10 provinces, and spilled over to neighbouring South
Africa.
About three deaths have been reported in South African while hundreds
of people, many of them Zimbabweans, are in hospital in the border town
of Musina after contracting cholera that is blamed on broken down
sewers, uncollected garbage and a shortage of clean water in Zimbabwe's
crumbling cities.
The Oxfam regional director added: The government of Zimbabwe must
acknowledge the extent of the crisis and take immediate steps to
mobilise all available resources to deal with the epidemic.
Compounding the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe was a severe food
shortage affecting at least 1.5 million people and the fact that the
country's once admired health system had totally collapsed while
doctors and nurses were grossly underpaid because the government does
not have money.
Oxfam's call on Mugabe's government to do more to ensure increased
international help to combat the disease comes days after the Harare
administration barred the Elders, a group of prominent international
figures and former statesmen from visiting Zimbabwe to assess the
country's escalating humanitarian crisis.
The Elders delegation, which later met regional governments, political
leaders, aid agencies, business and civil society representatives from
Zimbabwe on Monday said the crisis in Zimbabwe was far worse than it
had imagined and urged the regional SADC grouping to act urgently to
avert humanitarian disaster in the country. – ZimOnline