‘Cholera under control in Dera Bugti’

The cholera situation is now under control as the Balochistan government has dispatched medicines worth Rs5 million to the Pir Koh village in Dera Bugti in order to help it overcome the pandemic.

Spokesperson of the government of Balochistan, Farah Azeem Shah said that medicines would be provided to the affected people in the Pir Koh area and the epidemic has been almost brought under control.

The provincial government has already declared an emergency in the area to cope with the situation. So far, the outbreak of cholera has claimed four lives in Pir Koh as per the local district health officer (DHO). He added that the number of patients hit by cholera reached 1,700 on Friday.

“These people are suffering from various types of water-borne diseases including Cholera “, said the DPO. The spokesperson said that the CM has already directed the secretaries of health and public health engineering to stay in Dera Bugti till improvement in the epidemic situation.

She noted the CM was also in contact with different non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to sort out the issue of water shortage in the area.

Farah maintained that a member provincial assembly from Dera Bugti, Nawabzada Gohram Bugti has already contacted CM Bizenjo regarding the lack of potable water in the district.

“The provincial government has responded in a timely manner to the water crisis in Dera Bugti,” she observed.

Farah said the government has released Rs300 million for Dera Bugti district to address its water availability problem.

It may be recalled that the cholera outbreak was reported from the mountainous and isolated village of Pir Koh, Dera Bugti on Wednesday.

Doctors said that the supply of contaminated water led to the cholera outbreak as water was pumped to the village through a 12-km pipeline which was installed 32 years ago by Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) as a community project.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2022.