Zimbabwe declared a state of emergency today as a cholera epidemic, caused by the collapse of sewerage and water supply systems, spread throughout the country.

At the same time the country’s health minister, David Parirenyatwa, who said last week the ZANU PF government was coping with the problem, appealed for international aid to fight the cholera and admitted that the country’s hospitals were no longer functioning.

Dr Parirenyatwa said: “Our central hospitals are literally not working. Our staff is demotivated and we need your support to ensure that they start coming to work and our health system is revived.”

With the country mired in increasing desperation, riot police <NO1>officers<NO> had baton-charged a group of more than a hundred doctors and nurses on Wednesday in Harare, the Zimbabwe capital, to break up their demonstration for better pay and improved conditions to enable them to do their work properly.

The health workers, many <NO1>dressed<NO> in uniform, fled as the police attacked. Nearby, teachers and trade unionists tried to join the protest but were beaten by police reinforcements, and more than 15 were arrested.

The official cholera death toll is 565, with nearly 13,000 people infected, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Zimbabwe. But the real picture is much worse, independent health groups say.

Dr Douglas Gwatidzo, chairman of the rights group Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights<NO1> (ZADHR)<NO>, said the death toll was in excess of a thousand. He said the UN figures reflected only people who managed to reach the collapsing hospitals to die there. In the countryside and poor townships people were dying unrecorded in or near their own homes.

Tapiwa Hove, whose home is in the working class Harare township of Budiro, said: “Funerals of people dying of cholera are a common feature of our daily lives. But it seems no one cares. Sewage is flowing all over. It’s like living in Hell.

“People are dying at an alarming rate. There are funeral wakes in many households. The government might try to deny this, but the reality is there for all to see. And we are thirsty in this land of plenty. Dry taps have become a way of life.”

Dr Parirenyatwa said that with heavy summer rains beginning, the situation can only get worse. “What I am afraid of with the rains is that all the faeces lying in the bush will be washed into shallow wells and contaminate the water,” he said. “International help in management of water and sanitation is primary [to containing] the cholera.”

As the state of emergency got under way, international organisations such as the International Red Cross, CARE International and the UN Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) began building field latrines and distributing medicines and oral rehydration kits. They also took over responsibility from the state-run Zimbabwe National Water Authority for delivering disease-free water and repairing collapsed sewerage pipes.

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