ENVIRONMENT: Kenya and Somalia Hit by Floods, Now Cholera

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Dec 4 1997 (IPS) - A major threat of cholera looms in parts of Kenya and Somalia where more than one million people have been affected by floods, aid agencies here have warned.

One of the agencies, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said the sanitary system in Wajir, some 600 kilometres northeast of Nairobi, has already collapsed.

“A large part of the town which has a population of 40,000 is flooded and wells are contaminated with faecal pollution. There is no working latrine system and the sanitary conditions pose a high risk of cholera,” said an MSF statement, made available to IPS on Thursday.

It said all surrounding nine villages in Wajir, near the border with Somalia, have been affected and communities are gathered in pockets on high ground. “MSF is carrying out water treatment in Wajir district, chlorination of hospital water supply, distributing chlorinated solution and providing basic drugs to the people,” said the statement.

A similar situation exists in Ifo, a refugee camp for Somali and Sudanese refugees, in northeast Kenya. “Ifo is almost 75 percent flooded, with people sinking in 15 centimetres of water. There has been a 70 percent increase in the hospital caseload in Ifo in the last three weeks,” said the MSF statement.

MSF said it would soon start running a mobile medical clinic on a boat to deal with the growing cases of cholera, malaria, diahorrea and skin diseases in the neighbouring Tana River area.

The flooding occurred after the River Tana burst its banks, affecting 50,000 people, of which 25,000 (5,000 families) are displaced.

Cholera first broke out in June in parts of Kenya’s Nyanza Province, on the shore of Lake Victoria, leaving behind a trail of death and suffering for the people living around Africa’s largest stretch of inland water.

The epidemic then spread thoughout Nyanza province killing at least 400 people. Up to 3,000 cases have been treated in hospitals in the region where MSF is helping the Ministry of Health to combat the disease.

MSF said the case fatality was decreasing in the province and was down to 4.2 percent last week. The cholera outbreak also has hit Kenya’s tourist haven of Mombasa on the coast, killing at least 20 people.

Meanwhile, over 1500 people have been killed by flood-related diseases or accidents in the south of Somalia.

“Most people were killed in the floods, others in accidents when their houses collapsed or in crocodile and snake attacks. However, reports are increasingly being received on deaths from malaria, diarrhoea and other diseases,” according to the Nairobi- based Somalia Inter-Agency Flood Response, an umbrella organisation for the United Nations agencies and non-government organisations (NGOs) working in Somalia.

At least 230,000 have been displaced. “An unknown number of families have not managed to get away and are still stuck in their villages, on roof-tops, higher grounds, embarkments, or sand- dunes, waiting to be rescued,” said the agency.

MSF has reported three cases of cholera in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu and many cases of severe diahorrea. “On 15 November, the MSF hospital reported a total of 17 cases of cholera in the hospital in Kismayo.

Kismayo receives displaced people from the lower Juba valley. It is estimated that there are approximately 15,000 people in a larger camp just outside Kismayo and in small camps inside the town. People are reportedly arriving daily.

MSF has built a shelter attached to the hospital and is running an ambulance service for the displaced people to the hospital. They are monitoring cholera, diahorrea and malnutrition.

In a rare show of solidarity, Somalia’s fueding warlords Hussein Aideed and Ali Mahdi also have appealed to the international community to rush in with food and medicines to rescue the flood victims.

Cholera is an infectious disease caused by bacteria which attacks especially the stomach and bowels. A patient’s chances of survival range from 40 percent — if the disease remains untreated — to 100 percent when proper treatment is administered.

Patients often suffer from severe dehydration caused by massive diarrhoea and muscular cramps.

According to the Meteorological Department of Kenya, the heavy rains, which have caused the floods in Kenya and Somalia, are expected to continue this month, and right into next year.

The rains have been associated with El Nino, a warming of the eastern Tropical Pacific occurring every few years, which disrupts the weather pattern of the region.