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Thousands of people are still waiting to be rescued from the flooded areas of southern Africa
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A week after the cyclone Idai on the flooded Mozambican port of Beira, cases of cholera have been recorded, said Friday a humanitarian group.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) warned of the risk of epidemics, already pointing to an increase in malaria.
The storm has so far killed 557 people across Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, but the death toll is expected to increase.
Idai landed near Beira with 177 km / h (106 mph) winds on March 14th.
Relief workers are slowly providing relief, but conditions would be extremely difficult, with some areas completely inaccessible and lack of helicopters.
Some 1.7 million people are reported to be affected throughout southern Africa, with no electricity or running water in areas where homes have been swept and roads destroyed by floods.
"Humanitarian organizations are increasingly concerned about the risk of epidemics," the IFRC statement said. "Already, some cases of cholera have been reported in Beira, as well as an increasing number of malaria infections among people trapped by floods."
Cholera, which is endemic in Mozambique, is spread by sewage-contaminated water and can kill within hours if it is not treated.
"There is stagnant water, it does not drain, rotting bodies, a lack of hygiene and sanitation," said Henrietta Fore, director of Unicef In Mozambique, at the AFP news agency.
"We are running out of time, it is at a critical point here," she said, warning that hygiene and clean water were top priorities.
"The magnitude of this crisis is staggering," said Elhadj As Sy, the head of the International Federation, after seeing Beira, which sheltered 500,000 people.
"We can not forget that it is an intimate and human crisis, tens of thousands of families have lost everything, children have lost their parents, communities have lost their schools and clinics."
A spokesman for the World Food Program (WFP) said the aid was "slow to start, [but]… is accelerating now, thankfully. "
"We are not yet where we need to be," he told AFP.
The UN has released $ 20 million from its emergency fund and its leader on Friday issued a personal appeal for further international support.
Humanitarian organizations said Mozambique was the most affected by the floods caused by rivers in neighboring countries. According to the UN, at least 65,000 people are sheltering at 100 temporary sites, many of which are "in desperate conditions".
Many people have not yet received emergency rations, some still hang on roofs and trees.
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