Corpses are left in shops and dumps; local population is at risk to die from infections – Mayor of Mariupol
YANA OSADCHA – WEDNESDAY, 22 JUNE 2022
There may be infectious disease outbreaks this summer in Mariupol, particularly cholera, that may cause thousands of deaths.
Vadym Boichenko, the mayor of the city, claimed this during a briefing.
"We’re on the threshold of a very complex epidemiological situation. There has been no trash collection system and sewerage since February 2022.
There are also a great lot of improvised burials in the yards and parks. And all this mix of trash, burials and sewage gutters is moving towards rivers and is poisoning wells that serve as the only water supply for the local population", – states the mayor.
According to the mayor, there are approximately 100,000 people in the city at the moment.
The occupying administration claimed that it quarantined the city, limited the access to rivers and the sea and created a brochure which advises people to process food with boiled water.
"Today our doctors are sounding the alarm saying that this summer there will be outbreaks of such diseases as cholera, and we can see that it is indeed very likely. These diseases can take thousands of lives", – Boichenko states.
He also says that the occupiers take the bodies of the deceased to the so-called "morgues" which are located in former shops.
"Yesterday I spoke to a local. He says that the most important thing for the people of Mariupol right now is to get food and water. There is the odour of death everywhere.
Humanitarian aid is being given away in the building where ‘Metro’ supermarket used to be, and nearby there is a shop which they turned into a morgue. Here there is food, there - a morgue", – says the mayor.
According to Boichenko, at the moment the occupiers continue to dismantle the rubble of destroyed houses, and the bodies found there together with the wreckage are taken to landfills.
"Where there used to be streets there are only ashes left now. They’re removing the debris. Before they were dragging out the bodies and putting them into mass graves to show it to the foreign media. Now they’re taking the debris along with the bodies to landfills", – says the mayor.
Background: Due to water shortage people in Mariupol have to draw water from puddles. Dorit Nitzan, WHO incident manager, claimed that due to the destroyed water supply system the spread of infections, particularly of cholera, is likely in Mariupol.
