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Analyzes in progress to determine the origin
People victims of strange discomfort on the beach of Ténès
AHMED YECHKOUR JULY 06 2021 10 H 45 MIN 2375
What really happened on Sunday on the central beach of Ténès, which had hosted the official ceremony for the opening of the summer season 2021 a few moments before? Analyzes and investigations are currently being carried out, we are told, by specialized services and laboratories to determine, with precision, the origin of the strange ailments that affected several people who were in the water and on the median. of this beach, among them civil protection surveillance agents.
Concurring sources have put forward a number of more than a hundred patients who had eye ailments, nausea, breathing difficulties and high fever for some of them. The first signs were felt on Sunday afternoon, around 5:30 p.m., before the first evacuations of the victims began to the emergencies of the Zighoud Youcef hospital in Ténès.
Fortunately, according to a health source contacted yesterday by us, all the people hospitalized showed no worrying signs and were able to leave this establishment yesterday morning (Monday) after receiving the necessary care.
It should be noted that all the medical staff and medical services of the said hospital were mobilized to welcome the affected people, mainly bathers and summer visitors located on the central beach of Ténès, located between the commercial port of this locality and the mouth. of the Allala wadi.
For the time being, no official information has been provided as to the causes of this strange phenomenon which occurred on a very busy beach. The results of the bacteriological and physico-chemical analyzes of the seawater samples taken by the prevention services of the DSP and the Department of the Environment of the wilaya of Chlef are expected, it is said.
At the same time, urgent measures were immediately taken by the wilaya authorities, starting with the establishment of a crisis unit to deal with and monitor this situation. It was thus decided the temporary closure of the central beach of Ténès until further notice, as well as the suspension of the distribution of water from the desalination station of Ténès, located 4 km at the west exit of the city and which supplies about thirty municipalities.
These are, it is said, preventive measures pending the conclusions of analyzes of seawater samples entrusted to specialized national laboratories. Long-awaited conclusions which should provide answers as to the origin of these sudden ailments that collectively affected bathers and people living on the central beach of Ténès.
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Algeria: nearly 200 bathers intoxicated after suspected pollution
Paris Match | Posted on 07/06/2021 at 3:12 p.m.
Editorial staff with AFP
Nearly 200 people became unwell after bathing in Ténès on Sunday, on the northwest coast of Algeria, and had to receive hospital treatment following possible marine pollution, according to local authorities and medical. Three beaches were closed, as well as a local desalination plant, and an investigation was opened by the attorney general of the court of Chlef, the wilaya (prefecture) on which Ténès depends. The victims suffered from nausea, fever and redness in the eyes, according to Lakhdar Seddas, the wali (prefect) of Chlef. They were all able to leave the hospital.
"The victims, people who were bathing at the central beach of Ténès, would have inhaled a gas which quickly spread thanks to the wind blowing throughout the afternoon of Sunday", explained the director of the health of the prefecture, Doctor Nasreddine Benkartalia, quoted by the official APS agency. For his part, the prefect did not exclude any hypothesis. "But the most plausible is that relating to the spill of a boat off Ténès," Seddas told a local radio station.
A cyanobacteria involved?
According to the private information site Ennahar Online, it is a cargo ship flying the Tanzanian flag, the Barhom II, which had set sail from the port of Sète (south of France). Another hypothesis: a microscopic toxic alga, according to Professor Réda Djebar, from the faculty of biological sciences at the University of Bab Ezzouar in Algiers.
In a post published on his Facebook page, Mr. Djebar recalls similar cases in Mostaganem (north-west) in 2009 and on several other beaches around the Mediterranean. The culprit, according to him, would be a cyanobacterium called Ostreopsis ovata. This algae proliferates in the Mediterranean when the temperature is high, as is currently the case.
Teams of divers were dispatched to the site in search of toxic waste. Thirty-six Civil Protection agents, including professional divers, were poisoned, according to a rescue official.
A delegation from the Ministry of the Environment took "air and water samples at the port (of Tenès), the beaches, the wadi" and the facilities likely to cause pollution, according to an official press release.
Analyzes in progress to determine the origin
People victims of strange discomfort on the beach of Ténès
AHMED YECHKOUR JULY 06 2021 10 H 45 MIN 2375
What really happened on Sunday on the central beach of Ténès, which had hosted the official ceremony for the opening of the summer season 2021 a few moments before? Analyzes and investigations are currently being carried out, we are told, by specialized services and laboratories to determine, with precision, the origin of the strange ailments that affected several people who were in the water and on the median. of this beach, among them civil protection surveillance agents.
Concurring sources have put forward a number of more than a hundred patients who had eye ailments, nausea, breathing difficulties and high fever for some of them. The first signs were felt on Sunday afternoon, around 5:30 p.m., before the first evacuations of the victims began to the emergencies of the Zighoud Youcef hospital in Ténès.
Fortunately, according to a health source contacted yesterday by us, all the people hospitalized showed no worrying signs and were able to leave this establishment yesterday morning (Monday) after receiving the necessary care.
It should be noted that all the medical staff and medical services of the said hospital were mobilized to welcome the affected people, mainly bathers and summer visitors located on the central beach of Ténès, located between the commercial port of this locality and the mouth. of the Allala wadi.
For the time being, no official information has been provided as to the causes of this strange phenomenon which occurred on a very busy beach. The results of the bacteriological and physico-chemical analyzes of the seawater samples taken by the prevention services of the DSP and the Department of the Environment of the wilaya of Chlef are expected, it is said.
At the same time, urgent measures were immediately taken by the wilaya authorities, starting with the establishment of a crisis unit to deal with and monitor this situation. It was thus decided the temporary closure of the central beach of Ténès until further notice, as well as the suspension of the distribution of water from the desalination station of Ténès, located 4 km at the west exit of the city and which supplies about thirty municipalities.
These are, it is said, preventive measures pending the conclusions of analyzes of seawater samples entrusted to specialized national laboratories. Long-awaited conclusions which should provide answers as to the origin of these sudden ailments that collectively affected bathers and people living on the central beach of Ténès.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Algeria: nearly 200 bathers intoxicated after suspected pollution
Paris Match | Posted on 07/06/2021 at 3:12 p.m.
Editorial staff with AFP
Nearly 200 people became unwell after bathing in Ténès on Sunday, on the northwest coast of Algeria, and had to receive hospital treatment following possible marine pollution, according to local authorities and medical. Three beaches were closed, as well as a local desalination plant, and an investigation was opened by the attorney general of the court of Chlef, the wilaya (prefecture) on which Ténès depends. The victims suffered from nausea, fever and redness in the eyes, according to Lakhdar Seddas, the wali (prefect) of Chlef. They were all able to leave the hospital.
"The victims, people who were bathing at the central beach of Ténès, would have inhaled a gas which quickly spread thanks to the wind blowing throughout the afternoon of Sunday", explained the director of the health of the prefecture, Doctor Nasreddine Benkartalia, quoted by the official APS agency. For his part, the prefect did not exclude any hypothesis. "But the most plausible is that relating to the spill of a boat off Ténès," Seddas told a local radio station.
A cyanobacteria involved?
According to the private information site Ennahar Online, it is a cargo ship flying the Tanzanian flag, the Barhom II, which had set sail from the port of Sète (south of France). Another hypothesis: a microscopic toxic alga, according to Professor Réda Djebar, from the faculty of biological sciences at the University of Bab Ezzouar in Algiers.
In a post published on his Facebook page, Mr. Djebar recalls similar cases in Mostaganem (north-west) in 2009 and on several other beaches around the Mediterranean. The culprit, according to him, would be a cyanobacterium called Ostreopsis ovata. This algae proliferates in the Mediterranean when the temperature is high, as is currently the case.
Teams of divers were dispatched to the site in search of toxic waste. Thirty-six Civil Protection agents, including professional divers, were poisoned, according to a rescue official.
A delegation from the Ministry of the Environment took "air and water samples at the port (of Tenès), the beaches, the wadi" and the facilities likely to cause pollution, according to an official press release.
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