In Zimbabwe yesterday, state media reported that water supply in the capital Harare has been cut off due to a shortage of purification chemicals. The news comes amidst an outbreak of cholera, which has killed nearly 500 people in recent months and infected over 11,000 since August. The disease has reached 9 of the country’s ten provinces, and Zimbabwe’s health ministry warned yesterday that the outbreak could spread even further with the onset of the rainy season in November.

Cholera spreads through contaminated water and is closely linked to a lack of safe drinking water and a functioning sanitation system. Outbreaks are usually concentrated in urban slums and refugee camps where basic water and sanitation infrastructure is generally weak. Although the majority of cholera patients can be treated through the with oral rehydration salts costing as little as 50 cents per dose, a shortage of medicines and the disintegration of Zimbabwe’s health infrastructure has driven patients across the border into South Africa for treatment.

The outbreak is the latest in a series of alarms signaling the collapse of basic services in Zimbabwe. In addition to fueling an acute food crisis and skyrocketing inflation, the country’s ongoing political and economic crisis have dealt a crippling blow to the country’s health and education systems, which were once among the most promising in Africa.

Pressure is mounting for the Zimbabwean government to declare a national emergency in hopes that it will help mobilize aid to address the outbreak. Earlier today, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called on the world to help respond to what he called labeled a “man-made” humanitarian crisis. Aid groups and medical charities like Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières are also calling for urgent action by the government.

-Nora Coghlan