World Water Day 2025: Angola Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) bring safe, treated water and hygiene messages to communities hard hit by cholera
Since the first cholera outbreak in Angola was confirmed on January 7, 2025, Angolan Red Cross volunteers have been at the forefront of the response, helping people avoid exposure to the often fatal water-borne disease.
Sometimes they even bring water into the bucket community, balance overhead, prepare verbal hydration solutions or provide people with safe drinking water.
The outbreak began in Cacuaco, a suburb of Lulanda Province, which hosts the country’s capital with about 1.2 million residents. Since then, the disease has spread to 14 provinces and 57 municipalities, with Lulanda having the highest number of cases (3,788).
“Oral cholera vaccine is an important tool to fight cholera, and this is the first time Angola has used it, but we always need to combine it with other preventive measures such as water treatment, soap and sanitary hand washing.”
Catarina Laurinda, Angola Red Cross’s response to cholera outbreak
Due to poor sanitation conditions, limited access to clean water and high population density, the epidemic continues to escalate. In the north of the north, the disease took life at an alarming rate.
Since the outbreak, the Angola Red Cross has trained 478 volunteers in six provinces (Luanda, Bengo, Cuanza Norte, Cuanza Sul, Uige and Zaire) to support the Ministry of Health to raise awareness.
Volunteers spread information about the causes, symptoms, preventive measures and health promotion through doors and mass communication in schools, markets and other public places.
“Our volunteers are visiting families in cholera hotspots, supporting the Ministry of Health to establish hand washing facilities in key places and provide safe, treated water and cleaning solutions for families,” Catarina Laurinda explained.
“As part of their water disinfection efforts, they have distributed over 20.000 household water treatment tablets in affected communities.”
Angolan Red Cross volunteers also track cholera transmission routes and ensure people have access to safe water, sanitation and sanitation services. The team conducted oral rehydration therapy for cholera patients and transferred the most severe cases to hospitals to treat people at the community level.
“When the cholera outbreak began in Cacuacuo, our first job was to distribute water treatment tablets to ensure that the population could drink safely with water. Joana Manuel Joao, Angora Red Cross volunteer.
“This way, Sick people can prepare oral rehydration salt. We then demonstrated how to use a tablet and how to properly store water so as not to get contaminated. ”
One of the main ways volunteers support cholera vaccination campaigns is to build trust and interact with the community**. His volunteers engage with traditional community leaders and spread information about cholera vaccines, appropriate sanitation and sanitation practices.
“Oral cholera vaccine is an important tool to fight cholera, and it is the first tool Angola has used.” Catarina Laurina added, “But we always need to combine it with other precautions such as water treatment, washing hands with soap and hygiene.”
However, the bigger challenge is to ensure that future outbreaks can be avoided.
“With the tools we have today and the knowledge we have for over a century, cholera should not be a public health concern,” said Dr. Alexandra Machado, who currently serves as the public health coordinator for the IFRC in Angola, said. “We have seen that in the last few years of the region, cholera outbreaks became annual occurrences.”
“That’s why the IFRC supports national societies and communities to prepare so that they can prevent cholera and other epidemics at the community level.”
This preparation and development effort is a key part of the IFRC’s end of the cholera program, which stresses that water and sanitation services need to be available to everyone, not just in response to outbreaks or emergencies.
“If we really want to end cholera, we need to acknowledge the root causes,” Naemi Heita explained that he was in charge of the IFRC Rural Cluster Office in Maputo and Angola*. “Government, NGOs and the private sector must mobilize and increase investment in water, sanitation and sanitation infrastructure, health and social systems so that they can withstand the consequences of disasters, conflicts and climate change.”
Distributed by Apo Group on behalf of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society (IFRC).
