Angola takes measures to improve access to safe water and curb cholera

Luanda ‒ Manuel Domingos, neighborhood leader of the Mussenga neighbourhood in Icolo e Bengo province in northwest Angola, remembers a time when the water provide to his neighborhood used to be serviced by a “unreliable water tank.” This topic is traditional across Angola, the place, according to executive recordsdata, around 44% of the population has no access to safe drinking water and most efficient 55% has satisfactory sanitation. In rural areas, these figures are even decrease, increasing the menace of ailments similar to cholera.

Since 7 January 2025, Angola has been responding to a cholera outbreak, with around 11 500 circumstances and practically 440 deaths reported as of 9 April 2025. In response, health authorities, with strengthen from World Health Organization (WHO) and United Worldwide locations Kid’s Fund (UNICEF), comprise embarked on a mission to contrivance and deal with the country’s most essential water access choices. The purpose is to establish sources of contamination, guarantee access to handled water and stop the unfold of cholera.

In response to this mission, in January and February 2025, 28 public health officers from 15 municipalities in five of the most affected provinces had been trained in mapping water sources. They realized how to use georeferencing tools to hit upon and file water sources, obtain recordsdata on cholera circumstances and insert this recordsdata into maps, thereby identifying seemingly contamination sites. This made it conceivable to deploy teams trained in water treatment, case administration and neighborhood involvement.

“Thanks to this coaching, we had been in a location to establish the selections of contamination, pinpoint the right speak areas and, in coordination with the Ministry of Energy and Water and the Nationwide Institute for Health Compare, guarantee families comprise access to drinking water,” says Marinela Moniz, technical officer within the Division of Setting and Smartly-liked Sanitation in Cacuaco, a suburb in Angola’s capital, Luanda.

With regards to 320 water sources were mapped across the country, bettering access to handled water for parents, namely in Luanda and Icolo e Bengo provinces, which together account for around 94% of cholera circumstances and 15% of associated deaths within the country.

Domingos says that the slip to of technicians to his neighbourhood has improved the topic. “The water technicians visited the water source in our neighborhood and trained us about the importance of handled water and since then, our tanks were supplied with safe water. Now, our adolescence are better stable from the menace of cholera,” he says.

Dr Indrajit Hazarika, WHO consultant in Angola, emphasizes the importance of multisectoral efforts to discontinuance cholera. “Thanks to multisectoral leadership and the strengthen of companions, we’re certain that this also will likely be conceivable to defend watch over contamination and discontinuance cholera quickly in Angola. But we must at all times stride access to quality water, improve sanitation, strengthen prevention and treatment, and own certain lasting safety to prevent us from shedding lives to ailments similar to cholera,” he says.

Meanwhile, officers relish Moniz slip to communities per week, talking to families and encouraging them to practice measures to prevent cholera. “We’re certain that with extra coaching and cloth to work with, we are going to relieve guarantee safe drinking water for families, discontinuance the outbreak and attach lives,” she says.