Zimbabwe's cholera crisis has reached unprecedented levels with nearly 63,000 people being infected by the epidemic, according to a report.
The epidemic, which began in August, has already killed more than 3,000 people - the deadliest outbreak in Africa in 15 years, the World Health Organisation (WHO), said.
Lack of awareness about the disease, no access to clean water and hospital staff trying to manage with little or no medicine have made stopping the spread of cholera impossible, the UN agency said in a report.
UN figures show only 23 per cent of the population has access to safe drinking water - a percentage likely to be worsening because of drought, reported Aljazeera.
More than one million people are at high risk of infection due to drinking water being unsafe after more than 70 per cent of springs, irrigation canals and rivers around the country dried up, according to the the UN's Food and Agriculture organisation.
Eric Laroche, the assistant director-general of the WHO, has called for drastic action to be taken over the outbreak.
Laroche warned the outbreak would continue unless "political differences are put aside," impoverished Zimbabwean health workers are paid, and the country's health system is bolstered.
In one area of the country Al Jazeera travelled to, state morgues had stopped functioning and communities were burying bodies that had been lying in them for more than a year.
Overloaded medical services have also been hit after health workers went on strike to demand higher wages.
Zimbabwe suffers the second-worst maternal mortality rate in the world after Sierra Leone with about 130 out of every 1,000 babies dying shortly after birth, experts say.
Hyperinflation and a downward-spiralling economy have added to the humanitarian disaster.
With an official inflation rate of 231 trillion, the Zimbabwean dollar has been rendered practically worthless, leading to severe shortages of food and foreign exchange.
Zimbabwe's central bank devalued its dollar on Monday by 12 zeros, turning one trillion dollars into one dollar, and issuing seven new notes in an attempt to counter the economic degradation.
The crises also come amid a backdrop of political deadlock.
Robert Mugabe, the president, and Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, have been unable to finalise a power-sharing deal reached after disputed elections in March last year amid ongoing rows over the distribution of positions within the government between Mugabe's Zanu-PF and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).