Baghdad - Three local government officials were arrested Wednesday on charges of neglecting to prevent a cholera outbreak in Babel province, police sources said. "Police forces detained the director of the Water Department in Kifil district, the municipality chief of Talwea district and the chief of the Water Department in Midhatiya district," a Babel police source told the Voices of Iraq news agency.
"The arrests were ordered by the local government for neglecting their duties," the source added.
Iraq's health ministry announced Tuesday that 20 new cases of cholera were reported in Babel province, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad.
The ministry has alerted the departments of water, electricity and health in an effort to stop the spread of the disease.
Meanwhile, health authorities in Jordan banned Wednesday the import of non-canned food from Iraq, following the discovery of cholera cases in northern Iraq, an official statement said.
Other precautionary measures introduced by the National Committee for Combating Epidemics include monitoring the behaviour of Iraqis entering Jordan and deploying more medical teams on the border.
Jordan currently hosts about 500,000 Iraqi refugees who fled their country after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
