A total of 105 people poisoned after drinking polluted water in Sansafat village in Egypt's Menoufia governorate are still receiving treatment in hospitals, local media reported Thursday.
Up to 120 people were hospitalized Wednesday after drinking polluted water in the village, official al-Ahram newspaper reported, adding that only 15 patients have been discharged after recovery.
According to the report, Egypt's Health Minister Mohamed Moustafa ordered to conduct tests on the water of the affected village every two hours and to close all the private or unlicensed water stations.
Any side found guilty in this case will be punished by the law, Moustafa was quoted as saying.
The minister also visited the hospital where victims are undergoing medical treatment. Angry families of the victims showed him a bottle of muddy water.
According to Amr Qandil, head of the preventive medicine sector at the health ministry, primary analysis showed that the polluted water had not been purified with chlorine, while the final results will be announced on Saturday or Sunday.
For his part, the presidency's spokesman Yasser Ali said a governmental team had been formed to manage the crisis of polluted water in Menoufia governorate.
The deterioration of infrastructure was the reason behind the crisis, said Ali, adding that some water networks were intermixed with sewage networks in Menoufia.
