Clement Duri, Harare’s director of health services, said that 18 of the deaths had been recorded in the capital, in the northeastern part of the country, and there had been hundreds of cases in Harare’s southwestern townships. The provinces of Masvingo and Manicaland, south and east of the capital, have also had large numbers of cases.

Cholera is a bacterial disease spread by fecal matter coming into contact with drinking water or food; in places with inadequate sewer systems, the bacteria can easily spread to water wells. It causes extreme diarrhea that can lead to fatal dehydration, but when it is treated with fluids and antibiotics, the death rate is very low.

Mr. Duri said that in the affected areas, officials had “decommissioned the bore holes and closed the wells.”

Small outbreaks of cholera are fairly common in Zimbabwe. In late August, an outbreak in the city of Gweru spread to other towns and killed three people. The country had a serious outbreak in 2008 and 2009 that the World Health Organization said sickened more than 98,000 people and killed more than 4,200.

The country’s years of economic suffering have created conditions for the disease to spread: Large numbers of people have moved to the cities to look for work and live in ramshackle housing without running water. Sewer and water systems are overburdened and have fallen into disrepair.