Iraq’s Basra declares 17000 infection cases from water pollution
Southern Iraq’s Ahwar marshes.
Basra (IraqiNews.com) Iraq’s southern province of Basra has recorded 17000 infection cases due to water contamination, its health official was quoted saying on Tuesday.
Riyad Abdul-Amir, head of the health department in Basra, told Almaaloma website that Basra hospitals have, so far, received more than 17000 cases of diarrhea abdominal distress due to water contamination.
Abdul-Amir warned of a “cholera outbreak as salinity rates continue to increase in the water unprocessed”.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi urged local authorities on Monday to address the water contamination issue and to ensure sufficient water deliveries from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Basra was one of several southern provinces which had seen wide-scale popular protests over poor public services last month, which developed into violent encounters with security forces.