The United Nations on Wednesday was slapped with a class-action lawsuit by victims of devastating 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti,alleging it was triggered when sewage from infected UN peacekeepers was discharged into the water system.
The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court, claims the epidemic, which killed at least 8,300 people and sickened more than 679,000, came from contaminated waste from a UN barracks and has resulted in additional cases in the United States, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
It’s the strongest action yet taken against the UN to admit culpability to the disease – which is spread through human feces — returning to Haiti for the first time in a century.
“The plaintiffs have undergone indescribable suffering as a result of chorea and have to live with the knowledge that cholera can strike again,” said Brian Concannon Jr., a lawyer for the human rights group Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, which is spearheading the litigation.
“They have a right to have a court hear their case and rights to damages that will help them go on with their lives and access to clean water.”
The group also claims that cholera continues to kill about 1,000 Haitians a year.
“Prior to defendants’ introduction of the cholera bacterium to Haiti in October 2010, Haiti and no reported cases of cholera,” the suit states. “Defendants have long known that Haiti’s weak water and sanitation infrastructure created heightened vulnerability to waterborne disease but failed to exercise due care to prevent the devastating outbreak of such disease.”
The suit claims the UN peacekeepers discharged raw sewage with human feces through poor pipe connections and unprotected open-air pits. It also alleges these disposal facilities “overflowed in rain,” emitting “noxious odors” and exposing local residents to raw sewage.
The UN has said it wouldn’t pay the hundreds of millions in compensation claimed by the victims and their families, saying it has diplomatic immunity.
It declined to discuss on the suit on Wednesday but said it “remains committed” to helping the people of Haiti overcome the cholera epidemic.
“The United Nations is working on the ground with the government and people of Haiti both to provide immediate and practical assistance to those affected, and to put in place better infrastructure and services for all,” spokesman Farhan Haq said.