Amanda O'Donnell
April 17, 2009
3:05pm
Cholera Outbreak in Guinea- Bissau
There have been seasonal outbreaks of cholera in Bissau in each of the past five years due to poor water infrastructure and a reliance on open wells. Jose Manuel Ramos, a water engineer at Bissau's Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources which is also responsible for water management, told IPS that neglect and a lack of investment has left most of the capital's sewage system damaged with dirty water from ruptured pipes polluting ground water.He said the sewage and water pipes in the city were laid in the colonial era some 45 years ago, and are now outdated and obsolete.
When the water infrastructure was being built in the 1960s, Bissau had a population of not more 60,000 people. Today we have well over 350,000 people in the capital. This has put immense pressure on the existing infrastructure. Residents of the capital have been forced to dig wells in their back yards in order to get water. But health experts have long warned that such water sources are not safe, especially during rainy season, when contaminated run-off finds its way into the wells.
In its latest country report, UNICEF, says only 20 percent of the population in the capital has access to pipe-borne water and even the water in the tap is of questionable quality because of lack of modern facilities to properly treat the water.he World Bank has started building water reservoirs in the capital, laying 24 kilometres of water pipes at a cost of nearly $6 million. The European Commission has also signed a $3.9 million project with Guinea Bissau to improve its water infrastructure and rural water systems which will include solar-powered water points and pumps in rural communities.
Water-borne diseases constitute one of the main causes of child mortality in Guinea-Bissau, which has the world’s fifth-highest level of child mortality with almost one in five children dying before age five.
I found this article most interesting because it was the only article all semester that has talked about how they are going to fight to outbreak of cholera. All the other articles talk about these horrific diseases and how so many people are dying but they never talk about what can be done to end it. I really like how so many organizations are willing to put forth money to save the lives of the MANY people in Guinea- Bissau. In the US, having clean water is not an issue for us what so ever, we need to start helping others get these small necessities that we take for granted.
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=46535
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