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REPUBLIC OF CONGO / CHOLERA
STORY: REPUBLIC OF CONGO / CHOLERA
TRT: 2.40
SOURCE: CERF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / FRENCH / NATS
DATE: 23-25 JANUARY, 2012, REPUBLIC OF CONGO
1. Wide shot, boy pushing dugout out
2. Wide shot, kids swimming dugout in the distance
3. Med shot, dugout pulling away from bank
4. Med shot, man carrying bag
5. Med shot, women lifting bag
6. Med shot, kids swimming
7. Wide shot, kids swimming
8. SOUNDBITE (French) Dimitri Fabrice Okoulokami, fisherman:
“For my nephew, it was a short disease, he got diarrhoea and within half a day he was like a skeleton and very weak. Within another half day he died.”
9. Med shot, Dimitri enters hut
10. Close up, Dimitri holding t-shirt
11. Med shot, Dimitri holding t-shirt
12. SOUNDBITE (French) Dimitri Fabrice Okoulokami, fisherman:
“It started at 3am, by 8 AM, he was also very weak and could barely speak. I thought 'no, no, I must go to Brazzaville'.”
13. Tilt up, girls climbing out of water
14. Wide shot, girls walking past camera
15. Tilt up, boy entering latrine
16. Med shot, girl washing bucket
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Jean de Dieu Konongo, Cholera Specialist, World Health Organization (WHO):
“The hygiene conditions are very precarious, the sanitation system is not working properly and there isn’t enough drinking water available and cholera is a disease linked to poor hygiene, a disease caused by poor sanitation, a disease caused by lack of access to water. It is called the “dirty hands” disease.”
18. Wide shot, woman drinking water
19. Med shot, little boy drinking water
20. Wide shot, boy at water's edge
21. Med shot, boy collecting water
22. Med shot, water chlorinator receiving buckets
23. Close up, syringe with chlorine
24. Wide shot, chlorinator spraying chlorine into bucket
25. Med shot, man sawing wood
26. Med shot, man fixing door
27. Wide shot, man fixing door
28. Pan right, kids to cholera poster
29. Wide shot, teacher talking about cholera with poster
30. Med shot, little schoolgirl in class
31. SOUNDBITE (English) Marianne Flach, UNICEF Representative, Republic of Congo:
“The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has been very vital in bring quickly, assistance to the areas that were affected by cholera for example, these islands here in the river, between the two countries. There's no electricity, there's no clean water, they have no health centre. It’s a population that needs a lot of out assistance and we often forget about them, so its very good that we've been able to use the Central Emergency Response Funds to give assistance to these islands.”
32. Med shot, kids swimming
33. Med shot, little boy looking out over river
Slicing its way through the heart of Africa, the Congo River is one of the world's mightiest waterways. It has, for centuries, carried people and goods through some of the continent's most inaccessible rain forests. It also carries disease.
In June last year, a cholera outbreak in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo spread down and across the river into the neighboring Republic of Congo.
It’s a porous border, fishermen and traders from both sides hop from one country to the other while criss-crossing the islands in between. Isle M'bamou, a large island upriver from both capital cities, has thirteen villages. When cholera hit, people here had no idea what it was or where it came from.
SOUNDBITE (French) Dimitri Fabrice Okoulokami, fisherman:
“For my nephew, it was a short disease, he got diarrhoea and within half a day he was like a skeleton and very weak. Within another half day he died.”
After losing their son, Dimitri's sister and her family boarded up their house and abandoned the island. The path is overgrown now, inside, their belongings are coated with dust. Dimitri mourns his nephew and understands the parents' pain. He almost lost his own son, Steward, to cholera just a few days later.
SOUNDBITE (French) Dimitri Fabrice Okoulokami, fisherman:
“It started at 3am. By 8 am, he was also very weak and could barely speak. I thought 'no, no, I must go to Brazzaville'.”
Steward was lucky, after six days in hospital, he recovered fully. The island has no running water and very few latrines, it’s the perfect place for cholera to survive and thrive.
When the outbreak hit Brazzville, squatter settlements with poor sanitation like this one at the Tsieme Bridge, were the worst hit. Latrines here feed directly into the same stream in which children play and people bathe.
SOUNDBITE (English) Jean de Dieu Konongo, Cholera Specialist, World Health Organization (WHO):
“The hygiene conditions are very precarious, the sanitation system is not working properly and there isn’t enough drinking water available and cholera is a disease linked to poor hygiene, a disease caused by poor sanitation, a disease caused by lack of access to water. It is called the ‘dirty hands’ disease.”
So far over 700 cholera cases and more than 30 deaths have been reported. In response to the outbreak, UNICEF and WHO through the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) have launched a series of initiatives throughout the affected areas to treat, combat and prevent cholera.
Here on Isle M'bamou, chlorination points have been set up and workers trained to purify water from the Congo River that households use for drinking, cooking and bathing.
Latrines have been built and continue to be built in public spaces like markets and schools and a social mobilization programme has been put in place to teach villagers the importance of hygiene and clean water, while children at school learn about washing their hands with soap and using the new latrines.
SOUNDBITE (English) Marianne Flach, UNICEF Representative, Republic of Congo:
“The Central Emergency Response Fund has been very vital in bring quickly, assistance to the areas that were affected by cholera. For example, these islands here in the river, between the two countries, there's no electricity, there's no clean water, they have no health centre. It’s a population that needs a lot of out assistance and we often forget about them, so its very good that we've been able to use the Central Emergency Response Funds to give assistance to these islands.”
But despite the interventions throughout the affected areas in the Republic of Congo, the threat from across the river remains, so the Central Emergency Response Fund has also committed $9 million dollars to the cholera response in the DRC.
The next rainy season is fast approaching and with it, the potential for new outbreaks of waterborne diseases like cholera on both sides of the Congo River and the islands in-between. But with better access to clean water, latrines, and, most importantly, knowledge of hygiene and sanitation, communities in both countries have a much better chance of protecting themselves and their families.
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