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YEMEN: Spotlight on water contamination

Global Arab Network - - Adam Turner

Saturday, 11 April 2009 23:50

Contaminated water is an ever-present and growing problem across Yemen. “Four years ago my three-year-old son died of acute diarrhoea. The doctor told me the disease was caused by contaminated water,” Fawziah Ismael from Bani Matar District, near the capital Sanaa, told IRIN. She now boils the water she gets from a well.

Poor sanitation, the lack of sewage treatment plants or effluent from them, the over-use of pesticides and fertilizers, and factory discharges are the main causes of polluted water.

An unpublished 2005 report by parliament’s water and environment committee highlighted the impact of water contamination on health. It said 75 percent of the population was threatened by water-borne diseases which were responsible for the deaths of 55,000 children annually, and that three of the country’s 21 million people had hepatitis as a result of consuming unclean drinking water.

Committee member Saleh Baoshr told IRIN some big basins had been contaminated by sewage treatment plants. “In Ibb Governorate… the sewage treatment plant [built in 1990] polluted the basin.” He also said Hadhramaut’s main water sources had been contaminated by oil companies.

Ali Qassim, an expert at the National Water Resources Authority (NWRA), said sewage treatment plants were “inadequate and overloaded” and in any case could not process factory effluent which contained elements like chromium, mercury and iodine.

Water from sewage plants is often used for irrigation and in this way heavy metals seep down into the groundwater, experts say.

Ahmed al-Sufi, an information officer at the National Water and Sanitation Foundation, a government body, told IRIN wells also became contaminated when farmers pumped water direct from sewage plants for irrigation purposes.

Piped water

A significant cause of water pollution is the dilapidated piped water network itself: Leaks allow sewage from household cesspits to enter the water supply system, according to al-Sufi, who also said the water coming into the network was from a mixture of contaminated and clean wells.

The cleaning out of concrete and/or metal water tanks on roof-tops was done insufficiently frequently, adding to contamination risks, he said.

According to a 2008 report by WHO and the UN Children’s Fund entitled Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation, 34 percent of the population had access to unimproved drinking water sources (unprotected wells, springs; carts with a small tank/drum; tanker trucks; and surface water).

Nitrates

Mohammed Abdul-Salam, an official with the Sanaa Basin Management Project, said in parts of the Sanaa basin the concentration of nitrates was over 50 milligrams per litre, a dangerously high level.

“Pesticides contain highly concentrated elements designed to kill pests... and could cause cancer [in humans],” he said.

Fluoride is another contaminant in parts of the Sanaa basin like Sanhan, Hamdan and Bani Matar - all in Sanaa Governorate. “Osteomalacia [bone disease] and dental fluorosis were observed in these areas as a result of the excessive intake of fluoride,” Abdul-Salam said. (IRIN)

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