GENEVA: The World Health Organization has rushed emergency supplies to flood-hit parts of Ukraine and are preparing to respond to an array of health risks including trauma, drowning and waterborne diseases like cholera, officials said on Thursday.
Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the bursting of the Soviet-era Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, which sent waters cascading across the war zone of southern Ukraine in the early hours of Tuesday, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.
“The impact of the region’s water supply sanitation systems and public health services cannot be underestimated,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press briefing.
“The WHO has rushed in to support the authorities and health care workers in preventive measures against waterborne diseases and to improve disease surveillance.”
Asked specifically about cholera, WHO technical officer Teresa Zakaria said that the risk of an outbreak was present since the pathogen exists in the environment. She said that the WHO was working with Ukraine’s health ministry to put mechanisms in place to ensure that vaccines can be imported if needed.
“We are trying to address quite a wide range of health risks actually associated with the floods, starting from trauma to drowning, to waterborne diseases but also all the way to the potential implications of disruption to chronic treatment,” she added.
The huge Kakhovka Dam on the Dnipro River separates Russian and Ukrainian forces and people have been affected on both sides of its banks. WHO’s Emergencies Director Mike Ryan said the WHO has offered assistance to Russian-controlled areas but that its operational presence was “primarily” on the Ukrainian side.
He said Russian authorities had given them assurances that people living in areas it occupies were being “well monitored, well cared for, well fed (and) well supported.”
“We will be delighted to be able to access those areas and be able to monitor health as we would in most situations wish to do,” he said, adding it would be for the Ukrainian and Russian authorities to agree how that could be achieved.
WHO rushes supplies to Ukraine, readies to tackle disease in flood areas
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WHO rushes supplies to Ukraine, readies to tackle disease in flood areas
- Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the bursting of the Soviet-era Kakhovka hydroelectric dam
- "The impact of the region's water supply sanitation systems and public health services cannot be underestimated," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press briefing
South African diamond mining company says 5 trapped miners presumed dead and files for liquidation
- The incident occurred in the early hours of Feb. 17 at the Ekapa Mine in Kimberley
- “This marks the end of 158 years of continuous diamond mining in Kimberley,” CEO Jahn Hohne said
JOHANNESBURG: Five miners who were trapped last week after a mudslide flooded a shaft remain unaccounted for and are “now presumed deceased,” the owners of the diamond mining company in South Africa said Wednesday, announcing that it had filed for liquidation and shut the mine.
The incident occurred in the early hours of Feb. 17 at the Ekapa Mine in Kimberley, the capital of Northern Cape province, when a sudden surge of water, mud and rock in minutes inundated an underground section of the mine, blocking access to its lowest mining level, around 800 meters (half a mile) underground.
The mine owners, Ekapa Resources and Ekapa Minerals, said despite rescue efforts that included drilling and assessments by specialist teams conditions were confirmed to be unsurvivable as tunnels were filled with mud and water with no signs of life. A search operation is ongoing.
At the same time, the owners announced the immediate closure of the mine where the incident occurred and petitioned the courts to be placed in liquidation.
The decision came after an internal evaluation found that, given the protracted worldwide diamond market downturn, exacerbated by the recent tragedy, the company is unable to continue meeting its financial responsibilities, it said.
“This marks the end of 158 years of continuous diamond mining in Kimberley,” CEO Jahn Hohne said in a statement. “A legacy the company acknowledges with humility and respect.”
The National Union of Mineworkers of South Africa (Numsa), considered the largest single trade union in South Africa, told the state broadcaster it was “shocked” by the move, which puts the jobs of about 1,200 workers at risk. The union said it would be meeting with its legal teams to discuss a course of action to possibly block the liquidation.
“The situation is very devastating,” Numsa Kimberley organizer Lerato Mohatlane told the SABC. “If the mine is indeed liquidated, it is clear that all the 1,200 workers will then lose their jobs.”
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy said it is set to meet with the firm and be briefed on what has transpired and ways forward.
South Africa is among the world’s biggest producers of diamonds and gold, and the top producer of platinum.
