Syria: Over 100 hepatitis cases recorded in Tartus province

More than 100 viral hepatitis cases were recorded in western Syria's Tartus governorate by the regime's provincial health directorate last week.

The infections were due to the pollution and mixing with sewage of water used for drinking and agricultural irrigation in a village in Tartus.

The pro-regime Al-Watan newspaper said people contracted hepatitis in Baamrah village by drinking water from a well containing contaminated water and eating crops irrigated with polluted water.

Locals said the regime's health directorate failed to deal with the outbreak, using herd immunity as a justification.

A sanitation source in Tartus told The New Arab's Arabic sister site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, pollution is not an issue confined to a specific area in the Tartus countryside.

The source said there are many sources of drinking and irrigation water contaminated with sewage due to the failure of large parts of the networks and the lack of maintenance in recent years.

They said this was caused by the regime diverting all its efforts towards the military and fighting in Syria's ongoing civil war, which started in 2011.

The hepatitis cases in Tartus comes as Syria also faces an outbreak of cholera, another waterborne disease.