Odour from wells sparks cholera scare in Sudan’s Northern State

Residents in Sudan’s Northern State have complained of an unpleasant odour in drinking water, and have voiced their fear for infection with cholera or watery diarrhoea that has been spreading in Sudan.

However, on Thursday the Sudanese Standards and Metrology Organisation denied that the groundwater that feeds the well is polluted. They attribute the odour to the high iron content in the water, and anaerobic bacteria that releases a gas which, they assure, is “not harmful to human health”.