Salfit Governorate
In 1998 Barkan factories generated each year an estimated 810,000 cubic meters of industrial wastewater, which flowed untreated from the 3 storage tanks, after a design defect, made them nonoperational when overloaded, into a nearby wadi into the agricultural lands of the Palestinian villages of Sarta, Kafr ad-Dik and Bruqin, and reportedly polluting the groundwater with heavy metals. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health roughly 70% of cancers among Palestinians in the contiguous Salfit Governorate occur among people living near the industrial park and exposed to the waste overflow.