DAKAR, 2 March 2011 (IRIN) - In northern Côte d'Ivoire vaccines are going bad, taps are dry and the families of women in labour are ferrying buckets of water to hospital, three days after the government of Laurent Gbagbo ordered power cut in the region.

Electricity went out on the morning of 28 February in the territory held by the rebel Forces Nouvelles (FN) and remained off the evening of 2 March.

Officials of Gbagbo's government, accompanied by armed men, went to the electricity distribution centre in the commercial capital Abidjan on 28 February and cut power off to the centre, north and west regions under FN control, "even though there appeared no need to do so and the grid is sound", according to the utility operator Compagnie Ivoirienne d'Electricité (CIE). CIE "disclaims all responsibility for this power cut and the consequences and damages that could result", a 2 March communiqué said.

The same region saw a power outage of about three weeks during the height of fighting in 2003.

A Gbagbo government spokesperson acknowledged electricity has been cut but said the outages are strictly for technical reasons. "These are technical problems and rationing problems that have nothing to do with politics," Ahoua Don Mello told IRIN. "We have to ration today because we're under embargo - some technical material is missing and we can't ship it in... The conditions we are seeing today occur when we're forced to ration electricity, petrol and gas. Certain zones have to be prioritised, that's understandable."

The cuts have crippled hospitals and forced people to turn to unsafe water sources, residents and health workers told IRIN.

"Two premature babies died yesterday [1 March]; the incubators are not working," Kouyaté Karim, departmental health director in the centre-north city of Bouaké, told IRIN. "It's quite worrying for patients who depended on electronic equipment in hospital." He said the hospital has a generator but not enough money to keep it running. He said a stock of vaccines – for measles, yellow fever, BCG and polio – is near ruined.

The same story was repeated in the northern town of Ferkessédougou. Coulibaly Bakary, head of epidemiologic surveillance, said: "We have tried to find private institutions where we might store vaccines, but most have already gone bad." He said health workers have had to ask hospital patients to transfer to a private clinic that has a generator.

Vaccine storage and the cold chain were already deficient in the region, according to World Health Organization officials who did an evaluation in late January. "Still, there were proper vaccine storage areas with generators," WHO representative in Côte d'Ivoire Mamadou D. Ball told IRIN. "But these are emergency back-up generators; they are not meant to run all the time." Ball said if the outage continues, blood storage will be a problem as well.

Water

The power cut means safe piped water is also cut as pumps and water towers supplying homes and hospitals depend on electricity, residents of several northern towns told IRIN.

People are drinking water from badly-maintained wells and even from swamps, residents said. "There is a real risk of cholera and other waterborne illnesses," Bouaké health official Kouyaté said.

Coulibaly in Ferkessédougou said: "Family members of women in labour are coming to hospital with buckets of water." He said electricity was cut for 21 days in Ferkessédougou during the 2003 conflict. "We formed a committee to teach people how to filter and treat water. It looks like we're going to have to do the same now; we don't know when the electricity will come back."

The UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) on 2 March began distributing water in the northern town of Séguéla, UNOCI said in a statement.

Bouaké doctor Kouyaté said: "Ivoirians – no matter what their affiliation – must ensure that the country's situation does not damage people's health."

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