INDORE: India’s cleanest city for the eighth time in a row, Indore is grappling with a severe civic crisis after contaminated drinking water triggered a diarrhoea and vomiting outbreak in the Bhagirathpura area, claiming at least seven lives and leaving more than 1,100 people ill.Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) commissioner Dilip Kumar Yadav said a leakage was detected in the main water supply pipeline in Bhagirathpura, above which a toilet had been constructed, leading to possible contamination of drinking water.
According to IMC officials, waste from the toilet was channelled into a pit directly above the water line, and a loose joint in the pipeline may have allowed sewage to mix with potable water.Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava told news agency PTI that seven deaths had been reported within a week after residents of Bhagirathpura fell sick due to contaminated water. Officials said over the past week, more than 1,100 people were affected by the outbreak, with 111 requiring hospitalisation.Madhya Pradesh minister Kailash Vijayvargiya on Wednesday acknowledged lapses by officials in the incident and said action would be taken against those found responsible, irrespective of their rank.Bhagirathpura falls under the Indore-1 assembly constituency, which Vijayvargiya represents as the minister for urban development and housing.Responding to questions on the incident, Vijayvargiya said, “I feel that a mistake has been committed, but it is better if we first ensure that all patients recover and create a positive environment rather than discuss this now.” He asserted that no official involved would be spared, even if they held a very senior position.As part of the emergency response, four ambulances and dedicated medical teams were deployed in Bhagirathpura. Separate wards were set up at the government-run Maharaja Yashwantrao Hospital and the private Shri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences.Private hospitals in the area were informed that the state government would bear the full cost of treatment for all patients.Chief minister Mohan Yadav, who visited hospitals in Indore and reviewed the situation in a high-level meeting, described the outbreak as an “emergency-like situation”. He said coordinated efforts by the administration ensured timely treatment for many patients. Yadav said around 40,000 people in Bhagirathpura were screened, with 2,456 suspected cases identified. Of the 212 patients hospitalised, 50 were discharged after recovery, while 162 remained admitted, most of them stable.“The state government will not tolerate any negligence. We are prepared to take the strictest possible action against those responsible for the incident. I have directed officials to properly examine complaints related to leakages in drinking water and sewer lines in all areas of the city and make necessary arrangements to prevent such incidents in future,” Yadav said.The chief minister also announced Rs 2 lakh financial assistance for the families of each deceased and ordered free treatment for all patients. IMC has begun flushing the affected water pipelines and is supplying drinking water through tankers, while ASHA workers have been deployed for door-to-door surveys to identify new cases.As authorities struggled to reconcile figures of the ill and deceased, the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court on Wednesday directed the state government and the municipal corporation to collate data and submit a detailed status report by January 2. The court also ordered the immediate supply of clean drinking water and the best possible medical care to affected residents.
