The official death toll from the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe has climbed to nearly 500, according to the World Health Organization. But doctors on the ground say the actual fatalities may be closer to 1,000, with more than 12,000 infected since the start of the outbreak in August. Severe shortages of clean water, food, and medicine have allowed the normally treatable illness to ravage the country. Poorer areas have been without running water for months and just this week, the government cut off water to the nation's capital, Harare. “The country is reaching a catastrophic level, in terms of food, health delivery, education,” said Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC [opposition party] leader
. “Everything seems to be collapsing around us” [Times Online].
Authorities say they have run out of water-purifying chemicals and have therefore shut down the water system in an attempt to contain the waterborne disease. But without running water, ...
