Daghestani authorities complete investigation into mass poisoning of local residents

The Prosecutor’s Office of Daghestan has announced the completion of the investigation into the mass poisoning of local residents in Buynaksk in June 2024, and has approved an indictment against the former acting director of the municipal water supply company.

According to Daghestan’s Health Ministry, at least 270 people sought medical help after being poisoned that June.

However, the Prosecutor’s Office has considered only the 44 people who went to the Buynaksk Central City Hospital with symptoms of acute intestinal infection between 6–12 June to be affected.

The unnamed director was charged with performing work and providing services which do not meet the safety requirements for the life and health of consumers.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the accused failed to ensure proper maintenance of water supply facilities and provision of water supply services to the residents of Buynaksk, and therefore, ‘as a result of untimely elimination of leaks (accidents), wastewater got into the water supply networks of the city’.

The name of the accused was not specified in the department’s report. In addition, no information about the director of the enterprise has been found in the official register of legal entities.

The first news about hospitalisation of Buynaksk residents appeared on 7 June 2024. The day before, the local branch of Russia’s Consumer Protection Agency completed scheduled laboratory tests of water quality and reported that no deviations from the norms were found. Four days later, on 11 June, the agency indicated that it had detected dysentery, rotaviruses, and noroviruses in tap water.

‘In Buynaksk there was an outbreak of intestinal infection associated with an accident (leak) on the main water pipeline coming from the clean water tanks. After the accident, there was a ‘suction’ from unorganised sewage running in the immediate vicinity,’ the local agency stated.

This was later confirmed by Daghestan’s Investigative Department.

Following the outbreak, vaccinations against hepatitis A — a virus mainly spread through the consumption of food or water contaminated with the faeces of an infected person — began in Buynaksk. The local administration urged residents to drink only boiled water, as well as using such to wash fruits and vegetables. They also quarantined kindergartens, schools, and other children’s institutions.

At the end of June, Buynaksk Mayor Islamudin Nurgudaev resigned, though it was unclear if this was due to the mass poisoning event.

According to one version, Nurgudaev had been summoned by the Head of Daghestan Sergei Melikov, after which Nurgudaev wrote his resignation statement.

Previously, Nurgudaev claimed that water pipelines in the city were in a dilapidated state of 70–80%, and that about 30 kilometres of pipes needed to be replaced.

Six months before that, Daghestan’s Deputy Prime Minister, Marat Khusnullin, reported on the construction of a new water pipeline in Buynaksk for ₽2,000,000 ($24,000).

This is not the first time that residents of Buynaksk have had problems with their water supply. In January 2021, Abdulvagab Sharipov, then acting director of the municipal water supply company, was accused of supplying residents with low-quality drinking water. The Buynaksk City Court merely fined him ₽100,000 ($1, 200).

No complaints to the city management have led to improvements. That same year, Melikov admitted that in just a few months, there had been four cases of mass poisoning due to bad water supply. But instead of complaining to the public utilities, Melikov blamed the residents themselves, who he claimed were dumping wastewater into the reservoirs.

Over 100 hospitalised by ‘tainted drinking water’ in Daghestan

More than 100 people have been hospitalised in Khasavyurt, a city in the Russian republic of Daghestan, with officials blaming the city’s water supply. Since 17 March, more than 100 people showing signs of acute intestinal infection were admitted to medical institutions. According to the Dagh…

OC MediaOC Media