Dubai reports mystery illness linked to severe floods that hit region

The health ministry did not say what the water had been contaminated with

A truck drains flood water following heavy rainfall in Dubai (REUTERS)

People in Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates have reported becoming ill from drinking water after the severe floods that hit the region.

The country was battered by a year’s worth of rainfall in 12 hours which caused severe flooding last Tuesday.

Unprecedented flooding caused havoc at Dubai airport, the world’s busiest international aviation hub. The weather caused Emirates to cancel flights of 200,000 passengers and delayed many more.

In dramatic footage, residents were seen jet-sking down streets, planes were forced to land in what looked like an ocean, and high-end Rolls-Royce cars were swept away in the deluge. By the end of last Tuesday, the UAE had more than 5.59 inches (142mm) of rainfall hit the country. An average year sees 3.73 inches (86mm) of rain.

The state-run WAM news agency called the rain “a historic weather event” that surpassed “anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949.”

Now people in the United Arab Emirates have shown symptoms associated with contaminated water, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

A drone view of cars and trucks lying partially submerged following heavy rainfall in Dubai (REUTERS)

The statement, carried by the state news agency, did not say exactly how many people had been affected or what exactly they were treated for.

There have been “a very limited number of cases that showed some symptoms of being affected by the mixed water” and they received hospital treatment, the ministry said.

It did not say what the water had been contaminated with.

Four people died in the floods.

Rain also fell in Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. However, the rains were acute across the UAE. There is speculation that ‘cloud seeding’ caused the floods.

Several reports quoted meteorologists at the National Center for Meteorology as saying they flew six or seven cloud-seeding flights before the rains. The center did not immediately respond to questions, though flight-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed one aircraft affiliated with the UAE’s cloud-seeding efforts flew around the country Sunday.

The UAE, which heavily relies on energy-hungry desalination plants to provide water, conducts cloud seeding in part to increase its dwindling, limited groundwater.