Cholera Outbreak Blamed on Dirty Water

Cholera Outbreak Blamed on Dirty Water

2007 September -   The Kurdistan Regional 
Government's health minister has warned that cholera outbreaks in the 
north could spread if the government does not improve its water supply. 
"If the government doesn't fix the dirty water problem, the cholera 
outbreak will continue and a huge disaster will occur," said KRG minister 
of health Zryan Osman.

Dr. Osman said that 13 people have died of cholera in the northern 
provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Erbil and Kirkuk. The minister reported that 
430 people in Sulaimaniyah and 270 in Erbil have been diagnosed with the 
disease. And Salah Ahmed Ameen, a senior health official in Kirkuk, said 
450 people are infected with cholera there. 
The World Health Organization, WHO, meanwhile, reports that at least 6,900 
cases of acute diarrhoea had been recorded. 
Cholera is a potentially life-threatening diarrhoeal disease that infects 
humans through contaminated water or food. 
WHO reported that the first confirmed case came from Kirkuk on August 14; 
that the government has since put in place measures to improve water 
safety and sanitation; and provincial authorities are chlorinating water 
in the affected districts. 
Osman noted that the spread of the deadly disease appears to be slowing. 
But he said that health officials are concerned that cholera could emerge 
in new areas where the water is not clean and basic services are poor. 
"The water systems need to be cleaned, and then we can control the 
disease," agreed Sherko Abdullah, head of healthcare in Sulaimaniyah 
province. "The problem isn't with the healthcare, it's with the services." 

International aid agencies and Iraqi officials have warned for years that 
Iraq could face disease outbreaks because of poor sanitation and 
infrastructure. 
Health officials in the southern city of Najaf reported five cholera 
deaths - all of them children - in June, and Iraqi health ministry 
officials in early July warned that water-borne diseases could spread 
because of crumbling infrastructure, according to reports by the United 
Nations' IRIN news agency. 
WHO in April said that 80 percent of Iraqis lack adequate sanitation and 
70 percent do not have regular access to clean water. The organization's 
report linked violence and health problems in Iraq. Yet Sulaimaniyah - 
which has remained relatively immune from the conflict in Iraq - has been 
hit hardest by the cholera outbreak. 
Nine people have died in the province, one in Kirkuk and two in Erbil, 
said Osman. 
People in Iraqi Kurdistan maintain that the government is not providing 
even basic services despite its relative stability and growing oil 
revenues. Many argue that the cholera outbreak is an example of how the 
regional authorities - which have a high level of autonomy from Baghdad - 
have failed them. 
"The government is primarily responsible for my mother's death," said 
Shadan Mohammed, a 25 year old student at the University of Sulaimaniyah, 
whose mother recently died of cholera. 
"If we had had clean drinking water, my mother would still be alive." 
Mohammed and her family live in a slum in Sulaimaniyah and drink from a 
well they drilled themselves last year because their neighborhood is not 
connected to the state water supply. Another four of Mohammed's family 
members have cholera, she said, and they are now boiling their water to 
prevent further disease. 
Sulaimaniyah's population has grown significantly since 2003, and 
officials estimate that more than 30 neighborhoods built on the outskirts 
of the city do not have water or sewage systems.

According to the Sulaimaniyah water authorities, of an estimated 35,000 
private wells in the province, only 15,000 have licenses, and none have 
ever been tested to determine if the water is potable. 
Ferhad Mohammed, head of water supply services in Sulaimaniyah, maintained 
that local drinking water is clean. "Sulaimaniyah has never had such clean 
drinking water as it does now," he said. 
But a video posted on Google that shows a man shovelling large amounts of 
dirt and sludge out of a huge water tanker in Sulaimaniyah has become 
popular viewing in the north. Some argue that the video provides evidence 
that authorities are not properly monitoring and managing the water 
supply. 
"The drinking water sources in the city [of Sulaimaniyah] are so dirty 
that any disease could come out of them," said Osman. "The drinking water 
is mixed with sewage." 
"The current water system in Sulaimaniyah can provide only 30 percent of 
residents with water," maintained Abdullah. "The system is old, the 
tankers are not regularly cleaned, and not enough chlorine is added to the 
water." 
The KRG, which governs Sulaimaniyah, Erbil and parts of Kirkuk, is in 
charge of containing the cholera outbreak in Sulaimaniyah and Erbil, and 
central government has sent medicine to Sulaimaniyah to help treat 
infected patients, said Abdullah. 
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government has allocated 100 million Iraqi 
dinar (US$81,000) to aid Kirkuk. President Jalal Talbani is giving 
US$50,000 to Sulaimaniyah and US$100,000 to Kirkuk, and aid agencies such 
as WHO are providing medicine. 
The outbreak scared off some foreign companies who chose not to attend 
Sulaimaniyah’s recent international trade fair, said Baban Ahmed, 
spokesman for the fair. The KRG-governed territories have been the only 
bright spot in an otherwise struggling Iraqi economy, and Kurdish 
officials have worked hard to attract international investment. 
"The cholera outbreak is hurting us economically," said Ahmed. "Several 
companies pulled out because they feared the disease." 
Doctors say they are overwhelmed by the flood of patients. Hundreds have 
crowded into Sulaimaniyah's public hospital, and patients with intravenous 
tubes stuck in their arms have had to lie on the floor because the 
facility doesn't have enough beds. 
Hemin Sarkawt, a doctor at Sulaimaniyah's teaching hospital, said he has 
worked day and night since the outbreak late last month. 
"We're getting tired, but we need to take care of this," he said. "It's a 
dangerous situation." 

---


More Aging Earth Headlines >> 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - Aging Earth Home

AGING EARTH HOME

---

© 2009; Aging Earth .com
Powered by WorldsLargestNetwork.com