WATANI International
9 August 2009
Following a recent outbreak of typhoid fever in the village of Baradaa in Qalyubiya some 25km north of Cairo, President Hosni Mubarak ordered an investigation into the reasons behind the infection of hundreds of individuals.
Mamdouh Khallaf, deputy to the health minister, said that the confirmed typhoid cases amounted to 351, but the villagers of Baradaa insist the figures are much higher. A Health Ministry expedition in Baradaa is testing the villagers and hospitalising infected individuals.
The Shubral-Kheima general prosecution summoned officials at the sewage authority in Qalyubiya for questioning, and arrested Anwar Nabawi, the contractor who had been in charge of erecting the potable water network there. The action came in the wake of official complaints by the villagers that Nabawi had pumped sewage water into the newly-established potable water network during test-runs. Qalyubiya governor Adly Hussein also made an official complaint against Nabawi, alleging that his contamination of the drinking water in Baradaa served to initiate the typhoid outbreak. The villagers, finding the water foul, were forced to use hand pumps to pump ground water for their daily needs. The ground water itself is of inferior quality, Hussein said, and may have contributed to the spread of the disease.
The head of Qanater town, Nagwa al-Esheiry, said that the potable water network of Baradaa is now being de-contaminated and purified, and the village’s 128 hand pumps are being removed.
Mohamed Basiuni from Baradaa said that over the past 15 years the village had no proper potable water and residents had to buy clean water at extremely high prices. The typhoid, he said, started six weeks ago when the new network was operated. The pipes burst around 80 times during the test runs, he said, meaning that the network was sub-standard. “We saw the contractor pump sewage water from the drainage ditch to test the network; when we enquired about this weird practice he told us it was standard and that the pipes will be flushed well before going into operation,” Basiuni said.
Youssef Ahmed, a lawyer, told Watani that Baradaa was one of the most densely populated villages in Qalyubiya. “The outbreak of typhoid was the result of the mixing of drinking and sewage water. People had to resort to hand pumps since this was the sole option at hand”. Hazem Hassan, a teacher, said that the village had plenty of problems: “In addition to the lack of clean water, we have neither a sewage system nor a single paved road”.
Mohamed Nagy, director of Habi Centre for Environmental Rights, said in a press statement that the authorities had refrained from shouldering their responsibility and resorted instead to accusing one another. A number of NGOs, he said, planned to release a detailed report on the Baradaa typhoid problem.