“Zimbabwean authorities on Wednesday accused an international group of overstating the risks of a cholera outbreak in the sprawling capital city of Harare, ensuring the public that the cholera epidemic that killed 4,000 people in 2008 won’t repeat again,” Xinhua/Global Times reports. Responding “to a 160-page Human Rights Watch report, titled ‘Troubled Water: Burst Pipes, Contaminated Wells, and Open Defecation in Zimbabwe’s Capital’ … Director of Health Services Stanley Mongofa told Xinhua that most places in the city were receiving potable water, including an area that was the epicenter of the deadly cholera outbreak five years ago,” the news service writes. “Human Rights Watch said it produced the report from research it carried out in 2012 and 2013 in Harare, including 80 interviews with residents in high-density suburbs,” the news service notes, adding, “The report comes at a time when the Harare City Council has signed a $144 million deal with a Chinese company to upgrade its aged water treatment infrastructure” (11/21).