Contaminated water ‘may breed disease’

AS rotting bodies stack up and contaminate water supplies across Asia, fears grew that sickness will pile more misery on a region reeling two days on from its worst disaster in living memory.

With infrastructure, including latrines and water wells, in the worst hit areas in tatters, international organisations urged that the thousands of bloated corpses littering beaches, streets and makeshift morgues be disposed of quickly to stem the threat of disease.

Experts said that though the risk of epidemics varied from country to country according to their standards of hygiene, hot temperatures, poor to nonexistent sewerage and spoiled food provided breeding grounds for germs.

In particular, the decomposing bodies contaminating water would provide ideal conditions for water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and malaria.

Food shortages were also shaping up as a major concern, especially in the more remote parts of Asia devastated by the 10-metre (30-foot)-high waves that slammed into 10 countries on Sunday.

In Indonesia’s Aceh province, near the epicentre of the undersea earthquake that sparked the tsunamis and where up to 25,000 are feared dead, a local police chief from the cut-off town of Meulaboh suggested the worst had yet to be seen.

“If within three to four days relief does not arrive, there will be a starvation disaster that will cause mass deaths,” Rilo Pambudi said in an e-mail, released by officials in Jakarta.

Across the Indian Ocean in Sri Lanka, where more than 25,000 people were killed by the wall of water that smashed into the island, drinking water wells along the country’s coastal regions were badly contaminated.

The worst hit town in India, Nagapattinam in southern Tamil Nadu state where at least 1,700 died, was lashed by rain Tuesday, adding to the misery of a community in ruins.

Fresh water was also a major problem on India’s remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where giant waves wiped out at least 4,000 people, with thousands more missing.

The United Nations said the biggest disaster relief operation ever staged would be needed for the victims.