Jordan's Prime Minister Marouf Bakheet fired the health and water ministers on Sunday after hundreds of people were hospitalised suffering from diarrhoea after drinking contaminated tap water.

Bakheet told reporters Water Minister Thafer al-Alem and Health Minister Saad Kharabsheh tendered their resignations after an inquiry found official negligence in the maintenance of the public water system that caused the outbreak of the virus in a rural village in northern Jordan.

The dismissal of ministers is rare in the kingdom where few public officials are held accountable but officals say Bakheet was forced to act after a public outcry over the failure of local authorities to stop the spread of the virus for nearly two weeks since the first cases were hospitalised. - Reuters