CHOLERA
A FAILURE OF A SYSTEM
Patrick Moriarty
Humans are made of water – more than 60%. Don’t drink for five to six days and you will die. No ifs, no buts. Drink water infected with the cholera bacterium, and you can die much faster – sometimes in hours.
In 2025, cholera – and other water and sanitation-related diseases – continue to be a scourge of the poor including, astoundingly, those living in some of the richest countries in the world. Every year, cholera infects some 1.3 to 4 million people and kills between 21 and 143 thousand. If you die of cholera or other preventable diseases you will almost certainly be poor, you will almost certainly live in a poor country, and you may well be a refugee or homeless. All, totally unnecessarily
These diseases can extend to those who aren’t poor too. The mother of esteemed water and sanitation activist Shomy Hasan Chowdhury, fell sick with diarrhoea and died within a day. “Her death made me realise the critical role WASH can play in saving lives from preventable diseases like diarrhoea. Despite coming from an educated background, I was unaware of the global WASH crisis. I did not want anybody else to go through the same, so I was driven to transform my pain into passion.”
There’s a simple way to stop people ever getting cholera and similar diseases: ensure the water they drink and the food they eat are not infected by the bacteria.
We’ve known all of this for at least 170 years – since pioneering Victorian epidemiologist John Snow first established the link between cholera and contaminated water in mid 1850s London.
So how is it that we continue to leave some people without any choice in the matter?
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It's a failure of systems, and of leaders to work together effectively to make those systems work. Task forces, global campaigns and international movements have tried to eradicate the virus for decades. Yet efforts to get to the root of the problem – poor water, sanitation, and hygiene – have been fragmented, underprioritised, and often even disconnected from cholera prevention programmes. Health experts know that safe water and sanitation are crucial. Water experts know that their interventions are designed to improve health. Yet year after year these leaders remain in separate silos or seated in different ministries that only come together after there is an outbreak.
