CEPZ workers fall 'sick'

A readymade garment factory in the Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) declared a holiday on Saturday after several workers fell sick with diarrhoea, police and factory authorities say.

Chittagong Bureaubdnews24.com
Published : 7 June 2014, 07:23 AM
Updated : 7 June 2014, 07:23 AM

When this was reported by the Sunman Group-owned 'Peninsula Garments', the BEPZA decided to test water samples from its supply system and clean the reservoir.

The factory employs 3,300 workers.

EPZ police station OC Abul Monsur said several workers complained of nausea, headache and diarrhoea minutes after joining work.

Workers alleged they fell sick after drinking water supplied from BEPZA's own plant.
Around 20 of them were treated at the BEPZA hospital.
"It's psychological diarrhoea," OC Monsur told bdnews24.com quoting doctors. "One feels sick seeing the other sick."
It was not immediately clear whether the water supplied by BEPZA was the cause of the sickness.
BEPZA Chittagong's General Manager Ahsan Kabir said a large number of workers took several colleagues to hospital after they had complained of stomach ache and diarrhoea.
"Doctors said the workers had nervous breakdown seeing several others sick," he said. "They, too, felt sick."
He said they were testing samples from the water plant to ascertain the real cause of sickness. The supply line and reservoir are also being cleaned.
It is difficult to bring the workers back to work once they go out of factory, Kabir said adding around 300 workers went to hospital for treatment.
"That why the factory authorities declared a holiday for today," he said.