Pesticide poisons scores

Pesticide poisons scores

Thursday, 07 July 2011
Mom Kunthear
The Phnom Penh Post

ALMOST 90 villagers were poisoned after they drank water from a stream that was polluted with pesticides in Kampot province, a doctor said yesterday.

The villagers from Trapaing Phlaing commune, including 36 children, were admitted to Chhouk district referral hospital on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Nob Neb, chief of the disease and emergency building, said yesterday.

“They were not seriously harmed as they only suffered from vomiting, diarrhoea and dizziness, after they drank water from the stream that had poisonous run off from the nearby farm land of the So Ngoun Company,” he said.

Villagers had been given injections of medicine, were recovering well and would be let out today or on Friday after final check-ups, he said.

The pesticide, which had yet to be identified, was sprayed to kill off bamboo and long grasses he added.

Chhouk district deputy police chief Nub Synoun said yesterday that it had rained shortly after the So Ngoun company sprayed the pesticide.

“The poisonous liquid flowed with the rain into the creek nearby that the villagers use ever day,” he said.

Relevant officials had inspected the site but had been unable to contact the So Ngoun company because it was too far away from the district police station, he said. So Ngoun Company could not be reached.