Aid bodies stress urgent need to focus on hygiene, sanitation and clean water to deal with the outbreak of water-borne diseases
Evacuees from Buzi village prepare a meal at a displacement centre after Cyclone Idai in Beira, Mozambique, on March 25, 2019. Picture: REUTERS/SIPHIWE SIBEKOibeko
While aid workers have been rushing to bring emergency aid to the hundreds of thousands of affected people, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies stressed the urgent need to focus on hygiene, sanitation and clean water. The UN has also warned that stagnant water in many areas, decomposing bodies and the lack of good sanitation in overcrowded shelters in Mozambique in particular could create breeding grounds for such diseases.
“That is the reason why I am raising the alarm. Many of these water-borne diseases are a great risk, but they are preventable,” he said.
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