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Duck farms linked to diarrhea cases
By Wang Qingchu |
July 15, 2011, Friday
|
Online Edition
Online Edition
A DUCK processor in central China has been dumping duck excrement and dead animals directly into a river, contaminating a drinking water source that later lead to more than 100,000 people getting diarrhea.
Duck farms scattered along the Xiaohuang River in Huangchuan County, Henan Province, were accused of discharging waste in the river, killing fish and polluting the water. The farms belong to Henan Huaying Agricultural Development Co Ltd.
The local water utility stopped collecting water from the river four years ago as it was too polluted, Shanghai Morning Post reported yesterday.
However, two reservoirs that were used as new sources of tap water dried up in a drought this year and the county government was forced to resume pumping water from the Xiaohuang in April. Two months later there was a severe outbreak of diarrhea, sickening more than 100,000 villagers.
Three rusted pipes were seen stuck into the muddy river, where bottles and disposable lunch boxes were floating, to collect tap water supplying 280,000 people.
"The release of pollutants into the river never stopped, resulting in widespread diarrhea," an unnamed insider told the newspaper.
However, the county government downplayed the outbreak, claiming only 294 people developed symptoms. Officials blamed the diarrhea cases on hot, humid weather, dirty food and aging facilities at the water utility.
The 294 cases didn't include those who visited small clinics, said Liu Haiquan, deputy head of the county disease control center.
An investigation by experts of the Henan Health Department revealed the major cause of the diarrhea was the inferior tap water.
While denying links between the diarrhea outbreak and the tap water quality, local government agencies, including the county government and environmental protection authority, only drank water from wells. The environmental protection bureau's well was about 112 meters deep, the report said.
A worker at the water utility told the newspaper the cost of processing water from the Xiaohuang River was too high and that they couldn't make any money.
Duck farms scattered along the Xiaohuang River in Huangchuan County, Henan Province, were accused of discharging waste in the river, killing fish and polluting the water. The farms belong to Henan Huaying Agricultural Development Co Ltd.
The local water utility stopped collecting water from the river four years ago as it was too polluted, Shanghai Morning Post reported yesterday.
However, two reservoirs that were used as new sources of tap water dried up in a drought this year and the county government was forced to resume pumping water from the Xiaohuang in April. Two months later there was a severe outbreak of diarrhea, sickening more than 100,000 villagers.
Three rusted pipes were seen stuck into the muddy river, where bottles and disposable lunch boxes were floating, to collect tap water supplying 280,000 people.
"The release of pollutants into the river never stopped, resulting in widespread diarrhea," an unnamed insider told the newspaper.
However, the county government downplayed the outbreak, claiming only 294 people developed symptoms. Officials blamed the diarrhea cases on hot, humid weather, dirty food and aging facilities at the water utility.
The 294 cases didn't include those who visited small clinics, said Liu Haiquan, deputy head of the county disease control center.
An investigation by experts of the Henan Health Department revealed the major cause of the diarrhea was the inferior tap water.
While denying links between the diarrhea outbreak and the tap water quality, local government agencies, including the county government and environmental protection authority, only drank water from wells. The environmental protection bureau's well was about 112 meters deep, the report said.
A worker at the water utility told the newspaper the cost of processing water from the Xiaohuang River was too high and that they couldn't make any money.
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