The number is almost unbelievable: 2,419.6 coliform bacteria per 100 millilitres - against a permitted maximum of 50. That's 48 times over the safety limit. Water exactly like that ran from the taps in Gostivar while over 1,200 residents sought medical help with diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach pain and fever. And the most disturbing part isn't the number. The most disturbing part is that, according to the investigation, this wasn't an accident.

Pumps that mixed a canal into the drinking water

According to the indictment, three managers of the public utility „Komunalec" installed submersible pumps on 25 June that carried surface water from an open canal straight into the drinking-water system. By 16 July, when inspectors arrived, two pumps were still running - still mixing contaminated water into the main supply. The canal water tested at nearly 48 times over the permitted level. This isn't a hole in a pipe. This is a deliberately installed link between an open canal and the taps of an entire city.

Because of this, the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Gostivar opened an investigation against the acting director of „Komunalec", the technical manager, and the head of the water and sewage department. The three were detained for the criminal offence „Serious crimes against the environment and nature". A move towards custody is good - but it comes after the water had already been running for weeks.

1,200 sick, and still open questions

Epidemiologist Dragan Danilovski speaks of a „strong epidemiological link" between the outbreak and the contamination of the system. The Food and Veterinary Agency banned the use of the water only on 17 July - nearly three weeks after the pumps were installed. Why so long? Who was supposed to notice and didn't? And why is it even physically possible, in a public water system, for someone to simply mount a pump and let canal water flow in?

The detentions are a beginning, not an end. Because if three people could do this, then the system meant to stop them - oversight, controls, regular testing - simply didn't exist or didn't work. And while the investigations run, the people of Gostivar have learned the most expensive lesson possible: in this country, tap water is not a given. It's something you have to check - who is releasing it, and from where.