Sudan’s environment issues cause high mortality rate: Ministry

Sudan’s federal Ministry of Health has acknowledged during a meeting on Wednesday that air pollution, environmental degradation, and the spread of kala-azar in several states are the causes of the high mortality rate. “Sudan and Somalia are among the leading nations when it comes to the amount of deaths due to a bad environmental health, air pollution and significant complications in the contamination of drinking water”, the Ministry stated. The director of Environmental Health Department, Salah El Deen El Mubarak, said that there are “real problems facing Sudan in the contamination of soil, occupational safety, environmental sanitation, food survey and water safety”. The health official stressed the importance of building an effective system to monitor the rates of food and water contamination and pass decisive laws and legislation to address environmental issues throughout Sudan. File photo: Children suffering from kala-azar in Malakal hospital, South Sudan (UN News Centre)