Belly Ache :-(

Today is Victory Day (Zafer Bayramı) in Turkey to commemorate the victory in the Battle of Dumlupınar, the final battle in the Turkish War of Independence in 1922.

It is a public holiday so I get a day off, but I have spent the entire day at home recovering from belly ache that I contracted during a trip I made to Ankara on Tuesday this week. Two other colleagues fell ill at exactly the same moment with the same symptoms, right after we had a coffee in the morning during a meeting. I think it is related to the recent water cuts put in place by the Ankara authorities during August as a number of colleagues in Ankara have also been ill over the last few weeks. Having just read this article in the Turkish Daily News I am not surprised...

The cases of infectious diseases has increased in Ankara especially after August 1, the day the water cuts began,” said Secretary General of Ankara Chamber of Medicine Ercan Yavuz in an interview with the Turkish Daily News.

According to him, water cuts are not a remedy because the hygienic and fresh water should be kept in the pipes. It should be chlorinated and consumption limited. Otherwise, health problems arise due to practices employed to save water and the pressure shifts in the pipes when the water flow restarts.

You should not drink the tap water in Turkey anyhow, but when you see murky water coming out of your tap you wonder about bathing in it too. Take a look at Idili's istanbul polluted water photo in flickr.