Reem Leila investigates the culprit behind the salmonella outbreak which still threatens some governorates Reports of people falling sick and dying from sewage-contaminated water in 11 villages in Daqahliya governorate made the rounds in recent weeks, but conflicting statements by officials about the reasons behind the infections raised even more concern about disease outbreak in Egypt. The official line is that water pumps used to increase water pressure in homes in the villages of Daqahliya led to leakage of contaminants into potable water. Contamination of fresh water by raw untreated sewage -- which contains 18 types of salmonella -- caused the recent salmonella outbreak in the governorate. One person died and more than 100 were hospitalised with symptoms including fever, stomach aches, diarrhea and vomiting. They were all released after receiving treatment. Ministry of Health spokesperson Abdel-Rahman Shaheen said residents fell ill after drinking contaminated water which contained high levels of the salmonella bacteria along with other viruses. Other homes use water drawn through a pipe from an underground source and stored in tanks on rooftops. "This is an unsafe method of keeping water and thus more liable to be contaminated," according to Shaheen. The proximity of fresh water pipes and the raw sewage system, particularly when fresh water pipes run close to sewage drains, poses a serious threat -- especially if there is a leak or breakage in the pipes. Fresh water is not available in most of these villages, therefore residents pump underground water which passes very close to decaying sewage pipes. The pumps are the main culprit according to Shaheen because they are installed at a depth of 10 metres, when "pumps should be dug at a depth of at least 50 metres in order to be safe." But Mawaheb Abul-Azm, head of environmental quality systems at the State Ministry for Environmental Affairs, does not trust the assertions of health and water officials on the culpability of water pumps in the spread of the disease. Abul-Azm pointed an accusing finger at a gas station located in the middle of the infected area. "The ministry suspects the dumping of chemical waste from the station," she noted, "which led to the pollution of groundwater and the fresh water network in the area". Abul-Azm added that last week a team was sent to Daqahliya to investigate the matter in order to arrive at the real cause of contamination. In response to Shaheen and Abul-Azm's claims, Hussein El-Oteify, head of the water department at the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI), countered that the water neither contains waste from the gas station and only very few samples were contaminated with sewage water. More than 85 samples of water were taken from villages in Daqahliya, as well as other infected governorates for examination. "Only 35 per cent of the samples were contaminated with sewage water," explained El-Oteify, stressing that the water composition complies with international standards. In his mind, potable water is innocent of spreading the disease because it is "impossible" for sewage water and drinking water to mix. El-Oteify's theory is that the culprit in Daqahliya is food contamination, not polluted water. All those admitted to hospital had eaten fruit contaminated with pesticides, as samples taken from their stomachs have shown. Last week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that there was no cholera outbreak in Daqahliya as was first reported in the press, but the WHO office in Cairo declined to comment on government statements about the disease outbreak. Prior to this crisis, MWRI had readied a plan to supply villages across the country with fresh water at a cost of nearly LE2 billion, since nearly 50 per cent of Egypt's villages are deprived of fresh water. According to El-Oteify, Daqahliya will now top the list of water and sewage systems overhaul through the installation of a 15-kilometre-long pipeline at a preliminary cost of LE1.25 million. The project will begin in early November and last several months. "By the end of 2007, the remaining villages will be provided with fresh water," according to El-Oteify. Until then, he counseled, people should not use water pumps and boil water very well before using it.
