Several communities in the province of Espaillat were put under cholera alert yesterday, after more than 300 people with diarrhea and other cholera symptoms were treated in the Moca public hospital and at other public health facilities in the north over the weekend. The communities under alert are La Ceiba de Madera, San Antonio, Canca la Reina, San Francisco Abajo, Las Amapolas and the barrios of La Punta, La Espanola, Los Lopez, Juan Los Pitos, La Colina and El Corozo.
These areas are near the Moca River, whose contaminated waters were consumed by the people who are sick, according to the local health authorities. The outbreak of diarrhea is attributed to this situation and to the water being distributed by the Moca Water and Sewer Corporation (Coraamoca) through its aqueduct system. Tests conducted yesterday on the water distributed by Coraamoca in the barrio of La Lambada, in the municipal district of San Victor, showed a 7.2% contamination level confirming the presence of bacteria.
The Dominican Red Cross representative in the district, Reyes Manuel Garcia, who conducted the study, said that this water contained 0.3% chlorine and the normal level is 1% for it to be fit for human consumption. The authorities began to channel the Moca River in order to decontaminate it, at a time when several children in the barrio of La Lambada were taken to hospitals with vomiting, fever, diarrhea and other cholera symptoms. The authorities have launched a preventive campaign that involves hundreds of people in the areas where there has been a cholera outbreak.