Harare - The death toll in a cholera outbreak in a crowded township in crisis-hit Zimbabwe has risen to 11 since the beginning of the month, state media reported Thursday.

The state-controlled daily Herald newspaper quoted Health Minister David Parirenyatwa as confirming the death toll and saying that 10 more people were sick in hospital with the highly contagious bacteria.

"We are still looking at all these community deaths in a bid to contain the situation," he said.

All the deaths occurred in the sprawling dormitory township of Chitungwiza on Harare's outskirts with a population of about a million.

Like nearly all of the capital's poor townships, water supplies break down constantly, sometimes for months on end, causing sewerage drains to explode.

The lack of water also forces people to defecate in the open. The sanitation breakdown is compounded by the collapse of the refuse collection system, leaving huge heaps of garbage in the streets.

"My biggest worry is that we must get safe water and sanitation," Parirenyatwa said.

Health experts say the situation is a direct result of an economic crisis that has left President Robert Mugabe's regime effectively bankrupt.

Inflation is officially put at 11.2 million per cent, although independent economists estimate it at 30 million per cent, and gross domestic product is forecast to shrink 10 per cent this year, the fastest contract since the crisis began in earnest in 2000, triggered by Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farms. (dpa)