The Japan Times - 'Drink it anyway': Syria water woes peak in cholera outbreak

EUR -
AED 3.826328
AFN 79.173043
ALL 98.288981
AMD 415.532193
ANG 1.878503
AOA 952.693396
ARS 1090.715432
AUD 1.657831
AWG 1.875146
AZN 1.766508
BAM 1.959577
BBD 2.104557
BDT 127.111968
BGN 1.954369
BHD 0.392652
BIF 3037.737323
BMD 1.041748
BND 1.414212
BOB 7.202815
BRL 6.172983
BSD 1.042309
BTN 90.052719
BWP 14.466747
BYN 3.411143
BYR 20418.261843
BZD 2.093716
CAD 1.497615
CDF 2964.815103
CHF 0.945246
CLF 0.037284
CLP 1028.778137
CNY 7.591114
CNH 7.584457
COP 4402.698127
CRC 526.008875
CUC 1.041748
CUP 27.606323
CVE 110.68551
CZK 25.098839
DJF 185.138793
DKK 7.460896
DOP 64.223532
DZD 140.81825
EGP 52.382431
ERN 15.626221
ETB 131.799924
FJD 2.434097
FKP 0.85797
GBP 0.84319
GEL 2.984634
GGP 0.85797
GHS 15.844793
GIP 0.85797
GMD 75.005326
GNF 9016.329862
GTQ 8.055334
GYD 218.068251
HKD 8.114597
HNL 26.575166
HRK 7.68763
HTG 136.22127
HUF 410.224769
IDR 16912.25877
ILS 3.72016
IMP 0.85797
INR 90.097195
IQD 1364.68995
IRR 43844.572757
ISK 145.917845
JEP 0.85797
JMD 163.864289
JOD 0.739122
JPY 162.573138
KES 134.90602
KGS 91.099095
KHR 4191.994514
KMF 492.12366
KPW 937.573364
KRW 1496.92424
KWD 0.321036
KYD 0.868666
KZT 542.710909
LAK 22697.084354
LBP 93288.537733
LKR 311.232457
LRD 203.140847
LSL 19.277172
LTL 3.076011
LVL 0.630143
LYD 5.125397
MAD 10.431007
MDL 19.439284
MGA 4906.633513
MKD 61.533745
MMK 3383.557041
MNT 3539.859997
MOP 8.36304
MRU 41.518883
MUR 48.399699
MVR 16.050125
MWK 1808.994419
MXN 21.222788
MYR 4.623794
MZN 66.560934
NAD 19.271857
NGN 1623.605221
NIO 38.347228
NOK 11.747975
NPR 144.084351
NZD 1.835679
OMR 0.400997
PAB 1.042299
PEN 3.86645
PGK 4.176628
PHP 60.964656
PKR 290.386955
PLN 4.215863
PYG 8241.688733
QAR 3.792964
RON 4.976325
RSD 117.128928
RUB 104.045584
RWF 1451.155038
SAR 3.907418
SBD 8.799175
SCR 14.86197
SDG 626.090648
SEK 11.464505
SGD 1.413069
SHP 0.85797
SLE 23.651557
SLL 21844.935719
SOS 595.364722
SRD 36.570594
STD 21562.081421
SVC 9.120361
SYP 13544.808173
SZL 19.272456
THB 35.425163
TJS 11.408381
TMT 3.646118
TND 3.322084
TOP 2.439878
TRY 37.168878
TTD 7.08559
TWD 34.03443
TZS 2621.038023
UAH 43.777665
UGX 3841.367671
USD 1.041748
UYU 45.617055
UZS 13514.555742
VES 58.559375
VND 26179.128578
VUV 123.678421
WST 2.917756
XAF 657.217531
XAG 0.034184
XAU 0.000378
XCD 2.815376
XDR 0.80314
XOF 655.779254
XPF 119.331742
YER 259.497942
ZAR 19.278193
ZMK 9376.985749
ZMW 29.002626
ZWL 335.442448
  • RBGPF

    -0.9200

    61.28

    -1.5%

  • BCC

    0.5300

    128.45

    +0.41%

  • SCS

    0.0200

    11.6

    +0.17%

  • CMSC

    -0.0050

    23.485

    -0.02%

  • RIO

    0.4400

    61.56

    +0.71%

  • RYCEF

    0.2800

    7.55

    +3.71%

  • RELX

    0.1300

    49.39

    +0.26%

  • GSK

    0.6200

    34.05

    +1.82%

  • NGG

    0.6600

    60.71

    +1.09%

  • AZN

    0.4000

    68.6

    +0.58%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    12.55

    +0.16%

  • BCE

    0.0700

    23.22

    +0.3%

  • CMSD

    -0.0900

    23.87

    -0.38%

  • VOD

    0.0200

    8.4

    +0.24%

  • BTI

    0.4800

    37.05

    +1.3%

  • BP

    0.3600

    31.49

    +1.14%

'Drink it anyway': Syria water woes peak in cholera outbreak
'Drink it anyway': Syria water woes peak in cholera outbreak / Photo: Delil SOULEIMAN - AFP

'Drink it anyway': Syria water woes peak in cholera outbreak

In a Syria hospital crowded with women and wailing children, Ahmad al-Mohammad writhed in pain beside his wife after they contracted cholera, which is resurging for the first time in years.

Text size:

During his six days in treatment, Mohammad has watched patients stream into the Al-Kasrah hospital in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, where the highly-polluted Euphrates River is a major source of contaminated water used for both drinking and irrigation.

"We have suffered from diarrhoea, vomiting and pain... because we drink directly from the Euphrates River," the 45-year-old told AFP from the hospital, barely able to speak.

"The waters of the Euphrates are polluted but we have no other choice."

Cholera is generally contracted from contaminated food or water and spreads in residential areas that lack proper sewerage networks or mains drinking water.

The disease is making its first major comeback since 2009 in Syria, where nearly two-thirds of water treatment plants, half of pumping stations and one-third of water towers have been damaged by more than a decade of war, according to the United Nations.

The Syrian government has announced 23 deaths and more than 250 cholera cases across six of the country's 14 provinces since the start of the outbreak in September, with most cases concentrated in the northern province of Aleppo.

The semi-autonomous Kurdish administration that runs northeast Syria and parts of Deir Ezzor has recorded 16 deaths and 78 cases in areas under its control, including 43 cases in western Deir Ezzor, health official Juan Mustafa told reporters Wednesday.

He said water testing of the Euphrates proved the presence of bacteria responsible for cholera -- a spread he said was caused by reduced water flow.

- River pollution -

Said to have once flowed through the biblical Garden of Eden, the Euphrates runs for almost 2,800 kilometres (1,700 miles) across Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

In times of rain, it has offered abundant supplies, gushing into northern Syria through the Turkish border and flowing diagonally across the war-torn country towards Iraq.

But drought and rising temperatures linked to climate change have severely diminished water levels, with the Euphrates experiencing historic lows.

Syria's Kurds have also accused Turkey of holding back more water than necessary in its dams.

The reduced water flow has compounded the problem of river pollution, largely from sewage, but also from oil in hydrocarbon-rich regions, including Deir Ezzor.

Despite the contamination, over five million of Syria's about 18 million people rely on the Euphrates for their drinking water, according to the UN.

The cost of this reliance was visible in Al-Kasrah hospital, where a man softly cradled his infant, an intravenous tube piercing the child's tiny hand.

Hospital director Tarek Alaeddine said the facility admits dozens of suspected cholera cases every day and has tallied hundreds of cases over the past three weeks.

"The patients were all drinking water delivered by trucks that extract it directly from the Euphrates River, without filtering or sterilisation," Alaeddine said.

"We appeal to all international organisations working on health and the environment to act quickly and urgently," he said.

- 'We must live' -

The Britain-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said early this month that the disease had spread in western parts of Deir Ezzor after local authorities stopped distributing chlorine to water pumping stations.

The Kurdish administration, which controls parts of Deir Ezzor including Al-Kasrah, said they have resumed distribution following the outbreak.

They also announced assistance to Al-Kasrah and other medical facilities in the region to help contain the number of cases.

But the main source of the problem remains largely unresolved.

Farmer Ahmad Suleiman al-Rashid, 55, said he irrigated his fields of cotton, okra, spinach and sesame using water from the Euphrates, which caused contamination of crops.

"There are no water filtering stations... we drink unsterilised and unchlorinated water and rely on God for protection," he said

"What else can we do? The authorities are to blame."

As he spoke, a rusty truck pumped water from the murky, green Euphrates.

Meanwhile, irrigation pipelines sucked water out of the river, leaking what appeared to be oil onto the land.

"We know the water is polluted... but we drink it anyway," Rashid said. "We have no other option."

Nearby, a young boy splashed river water on his face to cool down in the summer heat while Sobha Hamid Ali, 60, sat in the shade cleaning spinach leaves.

She too is aware of the dangers but said there is little she can do.

"We are forced to eat contaminated vegetables," Ali said in a soft voice. "We must live after all."

H.Hayashi--JT