Thousands forced to collect drinking water from Ebola treatment centre as outbreak in DRC worsens

• Health facilities are operating at over 130 per cent their capacity
• Health workers are lacking even basic protective equipment such as gloves
• The outbreak extends to international borders

Around 20,000 people are forced to fetch drinking water from a single water source inside the grounds of an Ebola treatment centre in Bunia because they have no alternative.

Two months into the world’s largest Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC, Oxfam staff report that most health centres in Ebola hotspots remain without clean water and sanitation support – leaving dangerous gaps in one of the most important defences against Ebola transmission.

More than 2,011 Ebola cases have been confirmed with 754 deaths reported across 42 health zones in eastern DRC, according to the DRC’s Ministry of Health. Despite the growing toll, the response continues to dangerously lag behind with around 70 new cases reported nearly every day.

The virus is also spreading beyond the initial epicentre, with health authorities confirming new cases in Tshopo, Haut-Uélé provinces and most recently in Kisangani, a city of more than 1.6 million people, extending the outbreak's proximity closer to two international borders, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

Contact tracing has now reached 67.4 per cent coverage, well below the more than 90 per cent achieved at the same stage of the Ebola outbreak in 2018, leaving a significant gap in efforts to contain the spread of the disease.

At the same time, funding shortages are pushing Ebola treatment centres beyond their limits. Several facilities in North Kivu and Ituri are operating at over 130 per cent their capacity forcing health workers to care for patients without sufficient resources.

As treatment centres get full, many people with suspected Ebola cases cannot be admitted and remain in the community or are treated in poorly equipped primary healthcare facilities, diminishing their chances of survival. In one case, a woman with suspected virus had to wait for four hours for an ambulance because only one vehicle was available to transport patients.

Funding shortages are also slowing down community outreach activities of raising awareness, one of the most critical components to stop the spread of misinformation and improve surveillance.

Oxfam is calling for urgent investment to restore safe water and better equip health facilities and communities so that families can have basic protection mechanisms. Every delay without action allows the virus to spread further putting more lives at risk.

People can support Oxfam’s Ebola response by donating to DRC Crisis Appeal