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Mass Sanitation Module Emergency Response Unit, Zimbabwe

Cholera in Zimbabwe is endemic and occurs every year with the rainy season, but its impact is compounded by a lack of safe water, sanitation and health facilities.

GSK, working in partnership with the British Red Cross, has funded the deployment of one Mass Sanitation Module (MSM), an advanced and innovative approach to emergency sanitation provision which can cater for the needs of 20,000 people, offering sanitation facilities and hygiene education in the wake of, and during, a major crisis event.  It has become increasingly clear from disasters such as the earthquake in China and floods in Pakistan, that many lives are lost because there has not been sufficient support for waste management, disease control, planning and management of latrines and hygiene education.

The Mass Sanitation Module consists of four sanitation experts who are permanently on call. They can be commissioned at a moment’s notice to any location in the world, arriving within 72 hours to manage the deployment of the MSM.  The module is designed to be self-sufficient, containing sanitation and hygiene kits, all-terrain vehicles, specialist sanitation equipment, rapid latrines, tools and educational materials.

The MSM was deployed in December 2008 to help the people in Zimbabwe cope with a severe Cholera outbreak and save countless lives. The British Red Cross MSM team arrived in Zimbabwe with 4 specialists, the pre-packed kit and equipment to help provide emergency sanitation for the Cholera Treatment Centres to operate effectively.  They delivered mass hygiene promotion activities to over 65,000 people, provided safe sanitation for 6,000 people, distributed over 2,000 hygiene kits to vulnerable households, and provided training for hundreds of Zimbabwean Red Cross volunteers and staff.

After initial deployment, the remaining equipment is handed over to local organisations as part of the Red Cross’s commitment to building local capacity. It is hoped that in the future the MSM will become the model to share with other non government organisations.

Aninyeshe, aged 4 was brought in to the Red Cross Cholera Treatment Centre in Zvishavane, by his mother Sekai when he fell ill with Cholera. He was treated and two days later was feeling much better. Sekai said “I am very happy that my son is well again, and that we could get the treatment for him”.  

GSK has since supplied funding for one more MSM to the deployed in Haiti immediately following the earthquake in January 2010.

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