Cholera has killed more than 4,100 people and infected at least 188,000 across southern Africa since 2022, The New Humanitarian reports. Drought across the region is forcing migration to cities where informal, densely-packed settlements are perfect breeding grounds for the disease. Climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels is making droughts more frequent and severe, and an estimated 24 million people face serious hunger across a southern African region experiencing its worst drought in 40 years. “We’ve seen a number of people move from rural to urban areas because of climate change,” said Mambo Hamaundu, permanent secretary in Zambia’s Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. The drought is forcing people to leave their rural homes, seeking (perceived) economic opportunity in the city. Once there, new residents often live in unplanned, informal urban settlements with little if any waste management infrastructure — 45 tons of feces are openly deposited every day in the Namibian capital of Windhoek. “There’s no structure, no town planning, no streets; at random, people come and put up their shacks,” Sebastian Husselmann, Windhoek’s chief bulk and wastewater engineer, told The New Humanitarian. “That makes it almost impossible for the municipality to provide structured services like water, sanitation, and waste removal.” (The New Humanitarian; Climate Signals background: Drought)