Marwa Khaled is fully aware that contaminated water was behind her son’s cholera infection and hospitalization, but continues to use it because clean water is not available to most of her residents. poor city in northern Lebanon, which has become the focus of the outbreak of the epidemic.
She expects “everyone will catch cholera” in the city, as her 16-year-old son is still being treated in a field hospital set up in the city of Benin at the end of October.
Like many residents of this crowded city, Marwa, 35, and her six children drink dirty water because they can’t afford to buy bottles of mineral water. “People understand that, but there’s no trick in hand, we have no other choice,” she says, standing by her son’s bed in the hospital.
Cases of cholera began appearing in Lebanon in early October for the first time in decades, in light of an economic collapse that negatively impacted the ability of public services to provide basic services such as water, electricity and shelter, with the collapse of infrastructure.
The World Health Organization warned Monday of a rapid spread cholera epidemic The deadly virus in Lebanon, with confirmed infections reaching about 400 and the consequent deaths rising to 18.
Rana Ajaj, while caring for her two daughters in the field hospital, says that she and four other members of her family have contracted cholera. “Even after the injured are healed by us, we will drink from the same water again, and what happened will happen again, and we will get sick again,” she added, while caring for her eldest daughter, aged 17, and of the youngest, nine, who was injured for the second time.
On the other side, behind a dividing curtain, is ten-year-old Malik Hamad, who has lost 15 kilograms since he got sick two weeks ago and has difficulty drinking a rehydrating solution, while his mother fears that the other too. 10 children will be infected.
Benin, whose families comprise large numbers of people and live in poverty, has witnessed more than a quarter of all cholera cases in Lebanon.
Every day, about 450 people come to the Benin field hospital, about 20 kilometers from the border with Syria, according to its director, Nahid Saad El-Din.
“Sewage”
The population of Benin is about 80,000 inhabitants, of which a quarter are Syrian refugees, and in the Reyhanli camp near the city there was the first infection after the emergence of cases in Syria.
Few houses in Benin are connected to the dilapidated drinking water network and there is no regularity in their supply due to frequent power cuts.
North Lebanon Water Corporation engineer Tarek Hammoud indicated that the number of shared homes on the network does not exceed 500.
Subsequently, most residents are forced to purchase water transported by tankers from sometimes polluted wells.
It passes through the city, one of the tributaries of the Nahr al-Bared, contaminated with cholera, according to the director of the field hospital, which contaminated the wells and springs from which the residents used to drink.
Saad El-Din explains that “this water irrigates all agricultural land and pollutes all wells and springs in Benin”.
Referring to the black-colored water that irrigates “farms and agricultural land”, Jamal Essebsbi states that the sewage flows into the river and there are diapers and litter “and all disgusting things” scattered around it. “What is the municipality doing? She’s sleeping,” he asks in a tone of denunciation.
He added: “It is not surprising that diseases are spreading, as they will surely spread in the light of such a reality!”
“Catastrophe”
He appears cholera Usually in residential areas that suffer from a shortage of drinking water or a lack of sewage systems. It is often caused by consuming contaminated food or water and leads to diarrhea and vomiting. It’s easily treatable, but it can kill the patient in hours without treatment, according to the World Health Organization.
In an effort to combat the spread of the epidemic, the United Nations Children’s Fund “UNICEF” and the Lebanese Red Cross have taken the initiative to distribute soluble chlorine to the population to sterilize water.
“I was not afraid of the Corona virus as much as I am afraid of cholera today,” says Sabera Ali (44), a school principal, two of her family members who died of cholera last October.
The director of the field hospital, Nahid Saad El-Din, believes that “the infrastructure must be changed and that the wells and springs must be treated”.
“We are asking for a long-term plan to address the situation, otherwise we will see many more disasters,” he added.
