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Wednesday, August 20, 2014

'Safe drinking water for displaced main challenge'

'Safe drinking water for displaced main challenge'
Ensuring safe drinking water and hygienic foods to displaced people is the main challenge in the flood-hit districts, the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD) of the Department of Health Services (DoHS), which is responsible for preventing and controlling outbreak of diseases, said.

Officials at the EDCD said that health workers are struggling to provide safe drinking water to the displaced people as they do not even have vessels to purify the water by chlorination. 

“We have distributed chlorine drops at the displaced camps, but the people do not have water vessels for chlorination,” a health worker said. Health workers have urged the administration and the District Drinking Water Corporation’s office to ensure safe drinking water for the displaced people. 

Dozens have died and thousands have been displaced by the floods in Banke, Bardia, Surkhet and Dang districts in the Mid-western Region. Thousands of people in these districts are camping out at temporary shelters. 

The EDCD said that it has already deployed a team of health workers at the flood-affected regions to assess the possible risks of the spread of communicable diseases. 

“We have sent a team of health workers with essential medicines to the affected districts,” Dr Baburam Marasaini, director at the EDCD, said. He claims that there is no dearth of essential drugs in the flood affected districts and challenge lies in ensuring safe drinking water and foods for the displaced people. Most of the drinking water resources of the districts have been contaminated by the recent flood.

Dr Marasini said that the office is serious in its efforts to prevent any outbreak of communicable diseases in the camps for the displaced. The local authorities have set dozens of camps for displaced people in safe areas. 

The EDCD said that there is no need to send doctors from the capital as the region has several medical collages and regional hospitals whose help could be sought if situation demands.

Source:http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=81404

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