By Ana Paula Sambula

For some months now, the Angolan press has been denouncing a very serious crisis in the country – the health crisis that is leading to cholera and the deaths of thousands of Angolan citizens.  

Health authorities and humanitarian organisations have expressed concern about the situation and there are now proposals to contain the disease and offer medical care to the affected communities. What many overlook is that the spread of the disease is also linked to the biggest engineering project in Angola – the Lobito Corridor.

It’s known that cholera is transmitted by a bacterium called Vibrio cholerae. Cholera is transmitted via the faecal-oral route, i.e. by ingesting contaminated water or food, and also by person-to-person contamination. According to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the accelerated development of the Lobito Corridor is generating direct negative impacts on public health, including the spread of infectious diseases such as cholera, often introduced or aggravated by the uncontrolled influx  of migrant workers. UNITA MP, Anabela Sapalalo,  wrote on her Facebook profile that these workers, who come from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and other parts of the continent, often work in inhuman  conditions, without any kind of labour protection or health monitoring. They are not only victims of exploitation, but also potential unwitting vectors of epidemiological outbreaks.

In the provinces around the Lobito Corridor, where there are cases of cholera and other health problems, health services are overloaded or practically non-existent. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that less than 40% of births in some areas are attended by qualified professionals. Infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis remain widespread, while testing and treatment rates are extremely low. Hospitals are under-equipped, under-staffed and, in some cases, non-existent. Some areas have less than one hospital bed for every 10,000 inhabitants. The sudden increase in mass migration, construction and commercial activity in the corridor threatens to push an already overburdened health system into total collapse.

According to WHO reports, five main dangers accompany corridor growth: overloaded health infrastructure, disease transmission, environmental degradation, social dislocation and an increase in transport-related injuries. We could also include a sixth: the unequal distribution of benefits. While foreign investors and national elites reap profits, local communities bear the brunt of pollution, land expropriation and labour exploitation. In other words, the sixth problem is the biggest enemy in Angola’s history after the Civil War – corruption!

Perhaps Angola can solve problems of environmental degradation, perhaps transport, perhaps even health infrastructure and greater migration control, but everything will depend on solving the problem of corruption.  President  João Lourenço has praised the anti-corruption programme of the government, noting that despite the external difficulties, efforts to recover financial and real estate assets continue. According to him, Angolan courts act on the basis of the law, not political directives. But do Angolan judges take into account the social function of property and the values of the social democratic state, as observed in the most advanced democracies? If these judges really do take these values into account, then why is the reality of the populations around the Lobito Corridor one of misery, abandonment and disease? Is the President  being misinformed by his advisors about what is happening around the Lobito Corridor?

As the corridor advances through the heart of Angola, cutting through five of its poorest provinces that have so far benefited little or nothing from the resources of the Angolan Sovereign Wealth Fund, the promise of prosperity faces an uncomfortable truth: development without safeguards can deepen inequality, disrupt communities and cost lives. With more than $1.6 billion in investments from the United States and the European Union, this region should have the best healthcare infrastructure. Why aren’t the Western companies that are members of the LAR consortium concerned about this? This question is all the more relevant in the run-up to the US-Africa Business Summit, which starts on June 22.  Indeed, why haven’t they built hospitals and developed health infrastructure? Trafigura, Mota-engil and Vecturis knew about the consequences of the Lobito corridor, but did nothing. The consortium did not express concern about the lives and health of African citizens, they show concern only about raw materials.

Critics of the project claim that Angola does not benefit directly from the corridor, because Africa’s strategic resources from conflict zones are sent to big Western companies at low prices, boosting Western industry to the detriment of Angola’s backwardness and especially neighbouring countries like the DRC.

For many years a civil war raged in Angola, but today it is corruption that rages the country, both economically and morally among the country’s leaders and its big corporations. As long as this corruption is not dealt with properly, Angola will have no future and many thousands of Angolans will be unhealthy and even lose their lives. Health cannot be the price of a project of dubious effectiveness for Angola’s economy.