Liberian capital struggles to cope with cholera outbreak, water-shortages - UN

While war-torn Monrovia remains relatively calm, the crowded streets of the Liberian capital are festering with disease, sanitation is virtually non-existent – the city of 1 million plus has had no regular garbage pickup since 1996 – and clean water stocks are perilously low, according to the United Nations today.

On top of the already critical humanitarian situation in Monrovia, where the population has swollen by 300,000 people displaced by months of fighting in the countryside, UN agencies fear a new influx – which the city cannot possibly absorb – as rumours of new rebel assaults on villages in central Liberia set scores of anxious families on the road heading north yesterday. They feel the capital, the only area secured by West African peacekeepers, is the safest place to be.

Describing Liberia’s massive water and sanitation problems, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said only 32 per cent of the population had access to clean drinking water and less than 30 per cent had access to latrines. Most people depended on unprotected wells for water. About 45,000 displaced people lived in Monrovia’s SKD Stadium, the city’s biggest camp. Daily rainfall made living conditions difficult and the stadium’s makeshift healthcare centre was completely overwhelmed.

With a disease surveillance system now in place, WHO also said cases of measles had been reported, and that because of the living conditions in the tightly packed camps, Monrovia’s cholera outbreak was still not under control. From 25 to 31 August, over 2,000 new cases had been reported - of which 213 suffer from severe diarrhea - an “alarming” figure when compared with the 25 or so new cases per week reported at roughly the same time last year.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) meanwhile is concerned about the recent movements of displaced people outside Monrovia. It has begun distributing high-energy biscuits to thousands of displaced persons who fled from Totota for Salala on rumors of fresh rebel violence in the area. WFP fears a possible mass exodus into Monrovia may spark “total chaos.”

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) yesterday sent six trucks to Salala, which is some 90 kilometres northeast of Monrovia, with the first batch of emergency relief goods destined to help some 50,000 people who fled the areas displaced camps. These trucks were part of an inter-agency effort to reach out to these people, many of whom have been displaced several times. UNHCR remained extremely concerned about security and about the presence of heavily armed militia who were circling around the warehouse where humanitarian staff were placing the relief goods.