Libya's National Disease Control Center in Tripoli reported that 55 children were poisoned due to polluted water in the flood-hit city of Derna.
Floods caused by Storm Daniel struck the country last weekend, mixing clean water with polluted sources.
Head of the Center, Haidar al-Sayeh, told "Libya al-Ahrar" TV that the city's health infrastructure is in shambles, and the situation is expected to deteriorate further with anticipated poisoning cases.
Sayeh urged evacuating regions with completely damaged buildings and areas where drinking water has been contaminated, especially for women and children.
Meanwhile, the UN Relief Chief, Martin Griffiths, stated Friday that the floods in Libya claimed thousands of lives in the worst natural disaster in modern history, adding that "climate and capacity have collided to cause this terrible tragedy."
Briefing the United Nations in Geneva, Griffiths said that access to the city of Derna, the epicenter of the tragedy, remained challenging.
He noted that the UN deployed a disaster assessment and coordination team of 15 people out of Geneva and key staff from the region.
Furthermore, the Government of National Unity announced the restoration of electricity and other services to many areas of Derna on Thursday evening, three days after the cyclone disaster that killed thousands and left many more missing.
The media office of the Tripoli Emergency Service quoted its director, Salem al-Farjani, on Friday, stating that operations have started to evacuate citizens from Derna, restricting access to only rescue teams, volunteers, and military forces.
The Ministry of Justice, affiliated with the Government of National Unity, urged citizens with missing family members due to the floods in Derna to head to Herisha Hospital and Fataih and Zahr al-Hamr cemeteries.
They asked the families to provide DNA samples to the judicial research and expertise team of the Forensic Medicine Department to identify unidentified victims.
On Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Libya noted that the dead bodies from natural disasters and conflict do not generally pose health risks.
However, it stressed that dead bodies near or in water supplies can lead to health concerns, as the bodies may leak feces and contaminate water sources, leading to a risk of diarrheal or other illnesses.
Bodies should not be left in contact with drinking water sources.
The Red Cross noted that local authorities and communities could be pressured to bury the dead quickly. Still, it warned that the mismanagement of the deceased includes prolonged lasting mental distress for family members and social and legal problems.
It asserted that well-managed burials include easily traceable and adequately documented individual graves in demarcated burial sites.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and other relief organizations urged authorities not to rush forward with mass burials or mass cremations of flood victims.
The Medical Officer for biosafety and biosecurity in WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, Kazunobu Kojima, asserted that "dignified management of bodies is important for families and communities," and in the cases of conflict, is often an essential component of bringing about a swifter end to the fighting.
In a recently released statement, experts urge more structured and well-documented individual burial processes.
A UN report showed that over 1,000 individuals have been buried in mass graves since the onset of the disaster.
The report published on Thursday said that over 1,000 bodies in Derna and over 100 bodies in Albayda had been buried in mass graves after the floods on Sept. 11.
Regional Forensics Manager for Africa for the ICRC, Bilal Sablouh, told a Geneva briefing that bodies are littering the streets, washing back on shore, and are buried under collapsed buildings and debris.
"In just two hours, one of my colleagues counted over 200 bodies on the beach near Derna."
The ICRC sent over a cargo flight to Benghazi on Friday with 5,000 body bags, he added.
Sablouh warned that unexploded ordnances, common in some parts of Libya, posed a risk for those recovering the dead.
