Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Nov - Dec Vol. 9 No.6 | Page 11

NEWS in brief
faster than the global average. In the western Pacific, the
ocean is rising by up to 12mm a year, it said.
The flooding is a symptom of these higher waters, as storm
surges and tides encroach further onto the islands. Also
speaking to RTCC, the country’s education minister Hilda
Heine said that the constant flooding was having a long
term detrimental effect on children’s education.Schools are
shut down due to lack of drinking water as salt permeates
the supply, while classrooms are used for shelter.
Ebola outbreak: Africa sets up $28.5m crisis fund

Global Highlights

It is not clear why exactly the number of cases in Liberia has
dipped - but it has been running an awareness campaign
to advertise best health practices and install hand washing
stations
But he said the disease could “flare up” again, pointing to
Guinea, where the number of cases is rising again despite
two significant lulls.
Of the West African countries hit by the 11-month outbreak,
Liberia has seen the most deaths.
But last weekend its health ministry said two-thirds of the
696 beds in the country’s treatment centres were empty.
Liberia’s government has been running an awareness
campaign, advertising the best health practices and installing
hand washing stations at buildings across the country.
But despite significant contributions from the US, the UK,

Of the West African countries hit by the 11-month outbreak,
Liberia has seen the most deaths
Top African business leaders have established an emergency
fund to help countries hit by the Ebola outbreak.
A pledging meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, raised
$28.5m to deploy at least 1,000 health workers to Guinea,
Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The WHO says that at least one in five infections occur during the burials of
Ebola victims - it issued a guide this week to how best to conduct funerals

Experts say that if the disease is to be speedily contained, it
needs to be tackled in these three countries.
Nearly 5,000 people out of about 14,000 cases have been
killed by the virus, most of them in Liberia.
Speaking at the end of the Addis Abada meeting, African
Union chairman Dlamini Zuma said the resources mobilized
would be part of a longer term programme to deal with such
outbreaks in the future.
The chairman of telecommunications giant Econet Wireless,
Strive Masiyiwa, said that several companies had pledged
money to the emergency fund - to be managed by the
African Development Bank.
The Ethiopia meeting took place as Liberia was reported
by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on
Friday to have seen a significant reduction in the number of
new cases. It warned, however, that Ebola was still on the
rise in Guinea and Sierra Leone.
‘Flare up’
Chris Stokes, the head of MSF’s Ebola response, told the
BBC that the decrease in the number of cases in Liberia
presented an opportunity for health workers to step up their
work.

China and others, the head of the UN mission charged with
fighting Ebola says more help is urgently needed.
Farmers vs. Landowners in S.C. Water Rights Suit
By Sara Jerome
Landowners and farmers in South Carolina are in court over
a law regulating water rights and water siphoning.
On one side are “industrial-scale farms that use billions of
gallons of river water to irrigate crops,” The State reported.
Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • November - December 2014

9