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Depok diarrhea victims’ parents push authority to publish lab results
The Depok Health Agency promised the parents it would announce the lab results by Oct. 25, 14 days after the incident.
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Hundreds of students contracted diarrhea after using the school’s water for ablutions and other cleaning purposes. (Warta Kota/Budi Sam Law Malau)
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arents of children at the Pondok Duta Integrated Islamic Elementary School in Depok, West Java, are pushing the local health agency to release the results of lab tests on the school’s water supply.
Previously, hundreds of students contracted diarrhea after using water at the school for ablutions and other cleaning purposes.
Following the incident, the Depok Health Agency took a sample of the water to the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) laboratory for analysis and promised the parents the results would be released by Oct. 25, 14 days after the incident.
“However, it has been 46 days and there has yet to be an official announcement about the results, which could guarantee the safety of the school’s water,” Viny, a parent, said on Thursday as quoted by kompas.com.
At first, the parents thought the water was contaminated with fecal liquid. However, Viny said, the school’s investigation proved that this was not the case, leaving her and many other parents questioning what really caused their children’s sickness.
Another parent, Lina, said she and hundreds of other parents were still worried about their children using the school’s water because of the lack of information from the agency despite the school’s management saying that the water was safe to use.
However, Lina questioned the school’s statement as she could smell an unpleasant odor from the water from some distance.
“If the water is safe, why did almost all the students contract diarrhea at the same time? What really happened?” she asked. (ris)
