- Title: Clean water needed in Haiti as cholera spreads
- Date: 10th October 2016
- Summary: SUD DEPARTMENT, HAITI (OCTOBER 9, 2016) (REUTERS) DEBRIS AND TREES STRIPPED BY HURRICANE MATTHEW A CHURCH IN THE COMMUNE OF COTEAUX, SUD DEPARTMENT, HAITI ROAD A GIRL PAYING WITH A WATER PUMP PEOPLE WASHING THINGS ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD NEAR THE WELL MORE OF GIRL PLAYING WITH WATER PUMP AS WOMAN PUMP WATER VARIOUS OF PEOPLE AT A WATER PUMP IN A FIELD (SOUNDBITE) (Creole) AREA RESIDENT, BENITA JEAN, SAYING: "We don't drink any other water but this. It's the only thing we have here." CLOSE-UP OF GIRL WOMAN CARRYING WATER ON HER HEAD WOMAN WASHING CLOTHES IN A TUB SIDE OF ROAD DAMAGED HOME AND FIELDS EXTERIOR OF CHURCH IN COTEAUX COMMUNE PERSON STANDING AMID FALLEN DEBRIS DEAD ANIMALS IN WATER MORE OF PEOPLE PUMPING WATER FALLEN TREES
- Embargoed: 25th October 2016 06:05
- Keywords: Haiti Hurricane Matthew hurricane cholera water aid
- Location: SUD DEPARTMET, HAITI
- City: SUD DEPARTMET, HAITI
- Country: Haiti
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Wind/Hurricane/Typhoons/Tornadoes
- Reuters ID: LVA00153F7ZUV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: As Haiti struggles to recover from the wake of devastation left by Hurricane Matthew, a new crisis was brewing on Sunday (October 9) as the number of cholera cases climbs, an issue further complicated by the lack of clean drinking water here.
Haiti started burying some of its dead in mass graves as cholera spread in the devastated southwest and the death toll from the storm rose to 1,000 people.
The powerful hurricane, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, slammed into Haiti on Tuesday (October 4) with 145 mile-per-hour (233 kph) winds and torrential rains that left 1.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
A Reuters tally of numbers from local officials showed that 1,000 people were killed by the storm in Haiti, which has a population of about 10 million and is the poorest country in the Americas.
The official death toll from the central civil protection agency is 336, a slower count because officials must visit each village to confirm the numbers.
In the communes of Chardonnieres, Port-a-Piment and Coteaux in the southern Sud Department, residents told Reuters they were desperate for clean water, food and shelter.
For miles on end, almost all the houses were reduced to little more than rubble and twisted metal. Colourful clothes were littered among the chaos.
The region's banana crop was destroyed with vast fields of plantain flattened into a leafy mush.
With neither government nor foreign aid arriving quickly, people relied on felled coconuts for food and water.
Diarrhea-stricken residents in the village of Chevalier were well aware of the nearby cholera outbreak, but had little option except to drink the brackish water from the local well that they believed was already contaminated by dead livestock.
"We don't drink any other water but this. It's the only thing we have here," one Sud Department resident, Benita Jean said.
The stench of death, be it human or animal, was everywhere.
Cholera causes severe diarrhea and can kill within hours if untreated. It is spread through contaminated water and has a short incubation period, which leads to rapid outbreaks.
Government teams fanned out across the hard-hit southwestern tip of the country over the weekend to repair treatment centres and reach the epicentre of one outbreak. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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