Waste Contaminating Water in Sana’a, says Minister of Water & Environment [Archives:2008/1129/Local News]
Hamed Thabet
SANA'A, Feb. 11 )Abud Al-Rahman Fathl, Minister of Water & the Environment, said last week that the water treatment station in Sana'a district has undergone damages due to a hazardous waste leak into the sanitation facilities.
The minister, who spoke in a Parliament session about the procedures taken by the government to treat water waste in Sana'a, especially in the Bani Al-Hareth district, confirmed that the workers at the water treatment station faced many difficulties because a great amount of oil and waste from factories, slaughterhouses, and hospitals flows into the groundwater treated in the sanitation facilities. He claims the problem has existed for the last five years.
According to the minister, the contamination, which is in Sana'a' Basin in the Bani Al-Hareth district, has consequences. For example, he stated that the water is often not fully treated because the station is not able to remove all of the harmful elements in it, and even after treatment, the quality of water is still poor, full of water-borne diseases and not suitable for drinking.
Sana'a Basin is one of the largest Basin in Yemen, supplying water to approximately two million residents in the capital and surrounding villages.
“After evaluating and studying the water problems, the ministry is seeking help from experts in water purification in order to find solutions as soon as possible,” said the minister, adding that the ministry took unspecific immediate steps, which he claimed have already been accomplished. The ministry also claims to have begun work recently on radical immediate solutions, aided by experts in the water maintenance industry.
The Ministry was training Yemeni workers in general water sanitation so they will be able to deal with urgent water problems. Parliament said that they appreciated the minister's efforts and asked to convene a special committee for observation.
Yemen is far behind other countries in the region when it comes to providing clean water to its citizens. However, Yemenis use less water than people in any other Arab country, according to World Health Organization (WHO) rankings. Only half of Yemen's water sources are considered safe, according to the WHO, which stated that the other half either needs more chemical treatment or should be avoided altogether.
A 2005 parliamentary report also said that, 55,000 children die annually from diseases related to water pollution. The report, which warned of increased usage of contaminated water, said that 50 percent of childhood deaths in Yemen are due to water pollution, while 20 percent died from diarrhea and another 30 percent from malaria and typhoid.
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