BEBNINE, Lebanon — Marwa Khaled’s teenage
son was hospitalized with cholera after drinking polluted water in
Lebanon’s
impoverished north — yet she still buys the same contaminated water, the only
kind she can afford.
اضافة اعلان
“People know (the water is contaminated), but they
don’t have any other choice,” said 35-year-old Khaled, standing near her son,
who is bedridden at a cholera field hospital.
“Everyone will end up with cholera.”
Last month
Lebanon recorded its first cholera case since 1993, in the nearby Syrian
refugee camp of Rihaniye — weeks after an outbreak in Syria, which lies about
20km away.
Now the
World Health Organization warns the
waterborne disease is spreading “rapidly” as Lebanon struggles with crumbling
infrastructure, poor sanitation, and limited access to clean water following
three years of economic meltdown.
Over a quarter of the country’s more than 400
recorded cases are from Khaled’s hometown of Bebnine, where people resort to
unsafe water sources as the state fails to provide clean water.
The actual number of cases could be much higher,
with the health ministry recording more than 2,400 suspected and confirmed
infections.
The mother-of-six and her family drink contaminated
water, and trucked to their home from nearby wells and water sources, because
they lack access to running water and cannot afford bottled water.
Like much of Lebanon’s marginalized north, Bebnine
suffers from dilapidated infrastructure and government neglect.
A quarter of the town’s residents are Syrian
refugees living in squalid conditions.
“Sewage water”
Only 500 of Bebnine’s households are registered with the state
water network, in an overcrowded town of 80,000 people, according to engineer
Tareq Hammoud of the North Lebanon Water Establishment.
But even these do not receive round-the-clock water
supply.
A branch of the sewage-polluted Nahr al-Bared river
flows through the town and has been contaminated with cholera, infecting nearby
wells and water sources, field hospital director Nahed Saadeddine said.
Around 450 patients attend the hospital for
treatments every day, she said.
The contaminated stream “provides water for all the
crops in the area. ... There are wells, tanks, and springs pulling water from
it, even water filtration sites,” Saadeddine told AFP.
Cholera is generally contracted from contaminated food
or water, and causes diarrhea and vomiting.
It can also spread in residential areas lacking
proper sewerage and drinking water systems.
“The infrastructure must be changed, the wells and
water sources improved” to eradicate the disease, Saadeddine said.
“We want a long-term solution. Otherwise, we will
see a lot more disasters.”
The disease can kill within hours if left untreated,
according to the WHO, but many of those infected will have no or mild symptoms.
It can be easily treated with oral rehydration
solution, but more severe cases may require intravenous fluids and antibiotics.
‘Diapers’
Some patients at the
hospital have contracted the disease more than once, among them Rana Ajaj’s
nine-year-old daughter.
“Five of us are sick at home. Even after the
treatment, we will be sick again from drinking the same water,” the 43-year-old
said, passing a cup of water to her 17-year-old daughter who lay in bed, while
her younger daughter sat close by.
In the next bed, 10-year-old Malek Hamad was
struggling to drink his medicine, exhausted from losing 15kg after two weeks of
illness.
His mother is terrified that her 10 other children
may also be infected.
Outside the hospital, school supervisor Sabira Ali
walked along the banks of the polluted stream, gazing at the water.
“Coronavirus didn’t scare me as much as cholera,”
said the 44-year-old who lost two members of her family to cholera last month.
Bebnine resident Jamal Al-Sabsabi, 25, blamed local
authorities for failing to act as disease struck the town.
“What is the municipality doing?” he asked.
“Sewage water, diapers, waste ... everything gets
dumped into the stream,” Sabsabi said, pointing to the murky brook running a
few meters from his home.
“No wonder the disease is spreading.”
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
