17th October, 2007
Floods in Uganda increase malaria and cholera outbreaks
Flash floods, after torrential rain in August and September, have caused huge health risks in the eastern and northern regions of Uganda. The heavy flooding has caused pit latrines to overflow, resulting in raw sewage finding its way into water sources, such as streams and rivers. As a result, high numbers of cholera cases and diarrhoea have been reported. Malaria is also increasing because of the large stagnant pools of water left by the floods. And lack of nutritious food, as a result of poor harvests, is also taking its toll.
AMREF is distributing emergency drug kits, containing anti-malarials, anti-biotics and cholera kits to health centres in the affected areas. It is also working closely with trained community health workers to distribute insecticide-treated nets and to explain their importance for malaria prevention.
Sam Olimya, the Soroti District Disaster Response Coordinator, said: “If we do not intervene and take precautionary measures by ensuring that as many people as possible are sleeping under insecticide-treated nets, then we are heading for a crisis, even after the rains subside.”
Community health workers trained by AMREF in Kitgum and Pader in the north and Soroti in the east are also distributing plastic water containers and water purification tablets, working with community members to build new pit latrines on higher ground and educating them about hygiene and sanitation.
Joshua Kyallo, AMREF’s country director in Uganda explained the importance of the community health worker’s role: “They are from the communities that have been affected by the flooding. They know the area well and know the areas where the people are most desperate.”
Thousands of people have started to leave the internally displaced people’s camps because of the improved security situation to go back to their villages, but the floods have made this very difficult. With impending food shortages, as a result of failed harvests, it is feared that many may decide to go back to the camps.
According to Cissy Amony, AMREF’s Health Promotion Officer in Kitgum: “Life in the camps is difficult because there are very few services available, but for many of these people it is better than going back to their villages because there are almost no services due to years and years of war and neglect. At least in the camps they have access to a health facility, a borehole and a school.” For these people, returning home often means rebuilding their livelihoods from scratch, albeit with constant fear that the ongoing peace negotiations may collapse at any time, leading to a resurgence of violence in the region.
Cissy says that even before the rains came, thousands of people in the camps depended on food aid. Some of them had opted to keep one foot in their village and the other in the camps for fear that if they left the camps they would no longer be eligible for food aid. Because of the fragile security situation, many people would walk up to 5km to their homes every day to cultivate their gardens and return to the camps in the evening.
But whether they are living in camps or back in their villages, AMREF is appealing for support to provide clean water, access to basic drugs and community education to help people protect themselves from water-borne diseases and malaria. Donate