At least 39 people, including two children, have been hospitalized after being poisoned by tap water in the Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast city of Makiyivka, according to Pavlo Lysiansky, representative of Ukraine’s human rights ombudswoman.
People on Sept. 25 started reporting stomach pains, vomiting, dizziness and high temperatures, Lysiansky said. The victims reported that the tap water in their houses had a chemical smell, he wrote on his Facebook on Sept. 26, saying he had received this information from doctors in Makiyivka.
He said the water had become unfit for drinking after the area’s water disinfection system had broken down. The local water supply company, Voda Donbassa, had earlier warned residents to start boiling the tap water for at least 5-7 minutes, but not all of them followed these recommendations.
Lysiansky posted a photo of white, cloudy water that had come from taps in Makiyivka – still discolored even after boiling.
White, cloudy water that came from taps in Makiyivka on Sept. 25. (Facebook of Pavlo Lysiansky)
The Russian-proxy authorities confirmed there had been a mass poisoning in the city.
Denis Pushylin, who now heads the Russian-occupation authorities in Donetsk Oblast, held an urgent meeting and confirmed that the cause of the mass poisoning was a problem with water purification.
He added that the amount of chlorine used for water purification had been brought back to normal levels, and an investigation is being held into who is responsible for the incident, according to DAN, a news website controlled by the Russian-occupation authorities.
Makiyivka, an industrial city of located next to the oblast capital Donetsk, has been one of the strongholds of the Russian-led forces in the Donbas since Russia launched its war on Ukraine in the spring of 2014.
