Muhammed Karkas, Baladi News, Idlib
The Revolutionary Council and doctors of Maarrat al-Nu'man declared the city on their social network pages as a "devastated city". "The announcement came after the spread of many medical conditions, including Typhoid fever due to damage in the sewer pipes which led to a leakage that contaminated the hydrologic basin", the Council explained.
The Council held a meeting with the doctors through which they called on the humanitarian organizations to save the city from the serious epidemic which is threatening the lives of many.
Director of the national hospital, Ahmed Dadoush, told Baladi News: "The reasons behind the contamination of wells with sewage water are: the erosion of the network, the damage of many sewer pipes along with a leakage to the potable wells."
"We have examined a large number of water samples bacteriologically. All the results were positive with bacteria E.coli (Escherichia coli) which caused a large number of diseases, most notably typhoid fever. Furthermore, the opening of the drain on agricultural land has increased the risk of contamination and increased the number of insects and diseases especially skin leishmaniosis. The solution is to repair the sewage network and to cover the drain, "added the director.
Commander of the Revolutionary Council, Naser Hazbar told Baladi News: "The life span of the sewage system in Maarrat al-Nu'man expired since 2010 and it should have been changed six years ago. It was savagely bombed during the revolution by regime forces and Russian warplanes , leading to the destruction of many of sewage networks in the city.
"We have renovated the sewage system several times and removed the rubble out by cleaning the drain. Some pipes worked again after renovation, but others need to be changed", he added.
"All these attempts were emergency cases and we dealt with them in a good way, but recently the situation worsened as the majority of sewer pipes started contaminating the surface water," he asserted.
It should be noted that the city of Maarrat al-Nu'man contains a station for water wells. Rebels' battalions liberated the city from Assad's hands late 2014 along with the two camps of Wadi Al-Dief and Al-Hamidiyah after the regime forces disrupted the station completely and stole all generators and plungers from it".