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As if things could not get any worse in Zimbabwe, the country has a worsening cholera epidemic.According to the brave and scrupulously accurate Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR), the disease, caused by contaminated water, is spreading in many "high-density suburbs" (formerly segregated townships) around Harare, the capital, and in three districts of Mashonaland West, a province which saw some of the worst violence during this year's elections. There have been 27 deaths in the past month.The ZADHR statement points out that cholera is a disease "that can be easily prevented and cured". It is normally a problem only after disasters such as earthquakes or floods, when people have no choice but to drink water contaminated by sewage or dead livestock. But according to the state-owned Herald newspaper, the state water company has run out of money to pay suppliers and engineering firms.Zimbabwe's infrastructure and government services, such as education, were once the envy of Africa. But the creeping disaster that has overtaken the country under Robert Mugabe means up to five million people face starvation by early next year. For cholera to make an appearance is on a par with the judgement of economists that no economy has ever collapsed as rapidly and completely as Zimbabwe's, except in the midst of all-out war.Not that Mr Mugabe seems to care. Since the "historic" peace settlement signed with the opposition in mid-September, he has done eveything he can to ignore and bypass it, even to the extent of denying his rival Morgan Tsvangirai a passport to attend a regional conference in Swaziland to discuss the crisis. As a result the conference has been shifted to Harare on Monday, but don't hold your breath.By Raymond Whitaker
As in the days of Noah....
