30 July - 5 August 2012 - orsam

Poor Water Quality Water Leads to Hepatitis Outbreaks in Kyrgyzstan
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Between 8,000 and 14,000 children in Kyrgyzstan, which has a total
population of 5.6 million people, contract hepatitis A every year due to bad quality drinking water,
the Health Ministry announced.
Marking World Hepatitis Day on July 28, the ministry said most of those sickened by hepatitis A in
the country are children under the age of 14.
―The main reason [for contracting hepatitis A] is drinking water of bad quality,‖ it said. ―Only 62.4
percent of the rural population is provided with water from centralized water supply systems in the
Osh province, 56.1 percent in the Jalal-Abad province and about 50 percent in the Batken province.‖
The mayoral office of the Kyrgyz capital reported that the incidence of hepatitis A in Bishkek
increased by 84.7 percent in the first four months of this year, in comparison to the same period last
year. Every year, more than 1,000 cases of hepatitis A are recorded in the capital.
Of those who contracted hepatitis A in Bishkek in the first four months of 2012, 72.5 percent were
under 15, according to the mayor‘s office.
Bishkek Mayor Isa Omurkulov told residents of the capital‘s Rukhiy-Muras district in late July that
the whole district would be supplied with safe drinking water before the end of this year, with
$338,000 USD spent to build new pipelines.
A water intake facility in the district was rehabilitated in 2010, which allowed the water utility to
provide about half the district with safe drinking water. A pumping station and a water intake facility
worth $159,000 USD will be completed in Rukhiy-Muras soon, Omurkulov said.
Meanwhile, the number of children in Djide Village in the Ferghana Valley in southern Kyrgyzstan
and nearby areas who contract hepatitis due to lack of safe drinking water has increased since 2009,
when local authorities dammed the Toguz Bulak canal upstream to secure access to irrigation water
throughout the summer, EurasiaNet.org reported.
The resulting reservoir was turned into a swimming pool, forcing downstream villagers to drink
contaminated water from the canal.
―Poor Water Quality Water Leads to Hepatitis Outbreaks in Kyrgyzstan‖, 03/08/2012, online at:
http://www.ooskanews.com/daily-water-briefing/poor-water-quality-water-leads-hepatitis-outbreaks-kyrgyzstan_23704
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