Cholera prevention poster in Haiti. In reality clean water, sanitation and nearby health clinics are absent in most rural communities. Photo: PAHO
Safe water and sanitation, vital tools to combat the current cholera epidemic, are absent in most communities in Haiti, reports IRIN. The death toll rose to 501 on 6 November 2010, up from 442 on 3 November, and hospitalisations for cholera totaled 7,359, up from 6,742.
Haiti is one of the few countries in the world where both urban and rural sanitation coverage has steadily decreased between 1990 and 2008, according to the WHO / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation (WHO/UNICEF, March 2010).
Historical legacies of inequality, corruption, and extreme poverty all contribute to the Haitian government’s systemic inability to deliver safe water and sanitation.
