The distressing deaths of several people in Indore and a wave of typhoid infections in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar have been linked to an old and familiar scourge—contaminated municipal water supply. As city dwellers know, sewage intrusion into drinking water is common in India when water pressure dips and pathogens infiltrate the supply. The pollution unleashes several ailments, notably acute diarrhoeal disease, typhoid, hepatitis, gastroenteritis and meningitis.
Safe drinking water remains elusive
Safe drinking water has remained elusive for millions, producing the perverse effect of making India the world’s fastest-growing bottled water market. That this is the state of a life-sustaining public good in the world’s most populous nation is an indictment of development policies.
Indore case highlights municipal neglect
What happened in Indore, a mascot of the high-profile Swachh Bharat campaign, represents the abject failure of municipal authorities to carry out routine scientific checks on water quality in the Bhagirathpura area. It also underscores the low priority that political parties accord basic infrastructure for health, led by safe water and clean air.
Schemes fail to fix fundamental weaknesses
Ironically, a decade of programmes on Swachh Bharat and Smart Cities, buttressed by large investments, has not eliminated a fundamental weakness that frequently threatens the health of residents. It is not surprising, therefore, that according to NITI Aayog, India is ranked 120 among 122 countries on the Water Quality Index, and 70% of water in the country is contaminated. A third of districts nationally have unsafe groundwater because of high levels of fluoride, arsenic, salinity and iron.
Urban sprawl worsens infrastructure stress
Good sanitation and a safe water supply may be missing in large urban agglomerations, but that has not stopped steady speculation in house property, driving up prices and making inner-city dwellings unaffordable to own or rent. Vast numbers of people are moving to the suburbs, where local bodies have little capacity and facilities are in even more perilous neglect.
Temporary fixes mask deeper problems
The municipal response is usually to raise chlorination levels in the water supply to kill pathogens, leaving underlying causes such as cracked pipelines, free-flowing sewage and uncollected solid waste unattended. Given the overall derelict state of water, sanitation and hygiene, it appears improbable that over 81% of rural households have been given a safe water connection. There is no hard data on access to safe water in cities, nor a public database of water quality.
Citizens pay the price of neglect
Against such a background of indifference, moves to corporatise water supply for profit and levy charges in many places amount to nothing but a penalty on the citizen. After more than three decades of robust GDP growth, it would be incongruous for governments and local bodies to claim they lack the resources to improve water quality.
Public health failures compound the crisis
Equally indefensible is the failure of public healthcare to cover all citizens, reflected in the struggle of families of victims in Indore to access medical help.
