Sewage-contaminated drinking water is being blamed for killing at least 10 people, including a baby boy, and sending more than 270 others to hospital in Indore, ranked India’s “cleanest city” for the last eight years.
Residents of a congested, lower-income neighbourhood in Indore, Madhya Pradesh’s commercial capital, had been warning authorities for months about foul-smelling tap water. Their complaints went unheeded, despite the city’s much-lauded ranking for waste segregation and other cleanliness measures.
“I have received information about 10 deaths due to a diarrhoea outbreak caused by contaminated water in the Bhagirathpura area,” said Indore’s mayor, Pushyamitra Bhargava. Sewage was mixing “in the main line leading from the water tank”, he added.
Local media reported that the death toll had climbed to 15, but there was no official confirmation. At least 32 patients remain in intensive care units. Beyond those hospitalised, chief minister Mohan Yadav said health teams conducting door-to-door visits identified 2,456 “suspected patients”, who were given first aid “on the spot”.
Authorities say a public toilet constructed above a drinking water pipeline appears to have allowed sewage to seep into the supply. The toilet was built without a septic tank.
Residents began streaming into hospitals earlier this week, complaining of vomiting, diarrhoea and high fever.
Water tests “confirmed the presence of abnormal bacteria generally found in sewer water comprising human waste”, a medical official said.
Residents said their complaints about the water had run into a bureaucratic maze of red tape.
“Prima facie, this case falls under gross dereliction of duty,” said Indore municipal councillor Kamal Waghela. Several municipal officials have been suspended pending an investigation.
The five-month-old infant who died had been bottle-fed using tap water, his father, Sunil Sahu, told reporters. “No one told us the water was contaminated. We filtered it. The same water was flowing throughout the neighbourhood. There was no warning,” he said.
An editorial in the Hindu called for “better enforcement of water guidelines and other environmental laws at all levels”. The newspaper noted that toxic air pollution, which blankets many cities, was already “wreaking havoc on citizens’ health” and said what happened in Madhya Pradesh should serve as “a wake-up call for India’s water management”.
Opposition Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, accused the Bharatiya Janata party-led state government of negligence, saying “clean water isn’t a favour – it’s a right to life”.
The government said new rules would be framed to prevent similar incidents. “No stone will be left unturned to make sure it does not happen again,” Yadav said.
The Indore crisis comes amid broader concerns over water safety nationwide. The Times of India reported that only 8% of public water-testing laboratories run by the Delhi government were accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories, which certifies facilities meeting international quality-control standards. Nationwide, 59% of public labs are now accredited.
Experts warn that as India’s urban population grows rapidly, lapses in water testing heighten the risk of disease outbreaks.
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