The head of a water utility has been arrested in connection with a mass poisoning in Dagestan.

From April 2 to 4, 21 patients with signs of intestinal infection, including 14 children, were hospitalized to the Karabudakhkent District Hospital. On April 4, the number of hospitalizations increased to 25. The investigation identified drinking water as the probable cause of poisoning. On April 4, Rospotrebnadzor (Rospotrebnadzor) announced an emergency immunization in Dagestan due to flooding and the risk of a hepatitis A outbreak. Earlier, on March 28, the agency urged residents of Dagestan to drink only boiled or bottled water and not to use tap water without boiling it. According to investigators, the director of the Karabudakhkent District Water Utility failed to ensure the proper quality and safety of water supply services. As a result, between April 2 and 4, more than 50 residents of the district sought medical attention with signs of acute intestinal infection, some of whom were hospitalized. The suspect has been detained, the regional Investigative Committee's press service reported today on its Telegram channel.

A petition has been filed with the court requesting his pretrial detention. The criminal case is being investigated for providing services that do not meet consumer safety and health requirements. 1 .

"Investigative actions are currently underway to establish the circumstances of the incident and secure the evidence," the agency said in a statement.

As a reminder, floods caused by heavy rains have been ongoing in the North Caucasus since late March, and they have become some of the most destructive in recent years. More than 6,200 people were affected by flooding in Dagestan.

Six people died as a result of the flooding in Dagestan. Five of them died in the village of Mamedkala in the Derbent district and its environs: a pregnant 17-year-old local resident, a 12-year-old child, a five-year-old girl and her grandmother, as well as 70-year-old Aminat Musayeva, who had been missing for three days. In the village of Kirki in the Kaytag District, a resident of a house destroyed by a landslide, Kistaman Mazanova, a local village council member, died.

Dagestan and Chechnya suffered the most from the disaster, according to the Caucasian Knot report "Spring Flooding in the North Caucasus - 2026".

The Caucasian Knot has compiled materials on flooding in the republics of the North Caucasus Federal District in the spring of 2026 on the thematic page "Flooding in the North Caucasus".