A Zimbabwean cholera patient sits in his bed at a hospital in Harare in 2009 (Image: Desmond Kwande/AFP/Getty) A Zimbabwean cholera patient sits in

• 24 March 2009 by Linda Geddes
• Magazine issue 2700. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.

A Zimbabwean cholera patient sits in his bed at a hospital in Harare in 2009 (Image: Desmond Kwande/AFP/Getty)

AID workers in Zimbabwe need all the help that they can get, so a website that enables them to share information could be a big boost. Although Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak is finally showing signs of abating, the site could help relief groups as they attempt to rebuild the country's shattered infrastructure.

Launched this month, WikiMapAid will use collaborative wiki software to enable humanitarian workers and others to add health, welfare and education information to a version of Google Maps that can be viewed by anyone. The hope is that by circumventing official information channels, a clearer picture of what is happening on the ground can develop.

As went to press, a total of 89,649 cases of cholera and 4041 deaths had been reported in Zimbabwe since the outbreak began in August. But new cholera cases have fallen from around 8000 a week at the start of the year to 2151 in the first week of March. A central control centre was also recently set up in Harare with help from the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health.

Nevertheless, collecting data is still proving difficult, says Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization. "A crucial element for the control of cholera in Zimbabwe is the need to improve access to information, and the monitoring of new cases and suspected cases in the country," he says. "Any system that improves data collecting and sharing would be beneficial."

A crucial element for the control of cholera in Zimbabwe is improving access to information

That's where WikiMapAid could help. Users can create markers to show the location of places such as schools, hospitals or refugee centres, and they can attach links to video or photos of that place, or post a report of the current situation in the area. Similar services, such as the website HealthMap, have recently been developed to map disease outbreaks around the world.

At the moment, WikiMapAid is focusing on Zimbabwe, and as well as schools and suchlike, the tool lets you create other categories of marker to show not only the location of cholera outbreaks but also places like food and water distribution centres, says Rupert Douglas-Bate of Global Map Aid, the organisation leading the project. Users can also create new marker categories to show, say, public buildings, or to mark disease outbreaks in other countries.

The website is based on a Brazilian project called Wikicrimes, launched last year, in which members of the public share information about crime in their local area. It is designed to provide an alternative source of crime figures to official statistics, which some suspect of government manipulation, according to Vasco Furtado at the University of Fortaleza in Brazil, who developed the software for Wikicrimes and WikiMapAid. "Wikicrimes is a way of showing citizens that a particular area is a problem and to push the government to do something about it," he says.

Douglas-Bate hopes a similar approach in Zimbabwe could help ensure that aid is distributed correctly. "If we've all got the same situation report then we're all singing from the same hymn sheet," he says. Also, if people feel they will attract attention from the authorities by posting information, they could perhaps get friends on the outside to post information for them, he says.

As with all wikis, the integrity of the data will depend on the people supplying it. Although moderators will edit and keep track of postings, Douglas-Bate admits unreliable reporting could be a problem. To lessen this risk, Furtado is developing an algorithm that will rate the reputation of users according to whether the information they post is corroborated, or contradicted. "But even if we're just 80 per cent perfect, we will still have made a huge step forward in terms of being able to galvanise public opinion, raise funds, prioritise need and speed the aid on those who need it most," Douglas-Bate says.