At least 10 people have died after sewage reportedly mixed with the drinking water supply in India’s ‘cleanest city’
In Indore, hundreds fell ill and required hospital care after sewage is believed to have entered the water supply from a toilet built above a pipeline.
In Indore, which has been ranked as India’s “cleanest city” for the past eight years, sewage has killed at least 10 people, including a child, and left more than 270 hospitalized, with drinking water contaminated with sewage being blamed.
Residents of a crowded, low-income area in Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh, had been warning authorities for months about foul-smelling tap water.
Despite the city’s highly commendable ranking for waste segregation and other sanitation measures, their complaints went unheeded.
“I have received information that 10 people have died in the Bhagirathpura area due to an outbreak of diarrhea due to contaminated water,” said Indore Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava. “The sewage was mixing with the main line from the water tank,” he added.
Local media reported that the death toll had risen to 15, but this has not been officially confirmed. At least 32 patients remain in intensive care.
State Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said that in addition to the patients hospitalized, health teams had gone door-to-door and identified 2,456 “suspected patients,” who were given first aid “on the spot.”
Authorities say the contamination is due to a public toilet built directly over a drinking water pipeline, causing sewage to leak into the water supply. The toilet was constructed without a septic tank.
Earlier this week, people began arriving at hospitals complaining of vomiting, diarrhea, and fever.
A medical officer said that water tests confirmed the presence of “unusual bacteria typically found in sewage water containing human waste.”
Residents said their complaints about the water had been ignored by the authorities.
“Prima facie, this is a case of gross dereliction of duty,” said Kamal Vaghela, a municipal councilor in Indore. Several municipal officials have been suspended pending the completion of the investigation.
The five-month-old baby who died was bottle-fed using tap water, his father, Sunil Sahu, told reporters. “No one told us that the water was contaminated. We filtered it. The same water was flowing in the entire area. No warning was given,” he said.
An editorial in The Hindu called for “better implementation of water guidelines and other environmental laws at all levels.”
The newspaper noted that toxic air pollution, which engulfs many cities, is already “wreaking havoc on the health of citizens” and said what happened in Madhya Pradesh should be 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 is not a favor—it is a right to life.”
The government said new rules would be implemented to prevent such incidents. “No stone will be left unturned to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” Yadav said.
The Indore crisis comes amid growing concerns about water safety across the country.
The Times of India reported that only 8% of the public water-testing laboratories run by the Delhi government were accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories, which certifies facilities that meet international quality-control standards. Nationwide, 59% of public labs are now accredited.
Experts have warned that as India’s urban population grows rapidly, shortcomings in water testing increase the risk of disease outbreaks.
