Families grieve contaminated tap water deaths in India city

Sunil Sahu bitterly regrets the day his five-month-old son was given some cow milk diluted with tap water.

Avyan was being breast-fed but his father says the family – who live in Indore city in India’s central Madhya Pradesh state – gave him the diluted mixture in addition.

In many Indian families, cow’s milk is believed to be too thick for infants and capable of upsetting their digestion, leading caregivers to dilute it.

Aware that tap water is unsafe to drink, the family said they boiled the milk–water mixture and allowed it to cool before feeding Avyan.

The infant started suffering from diarrhoea on 26 December. Despite being treated by a local doctor, the child died within three days. Mr Sahu alleges that the tap water killed his son.

Avyan is among several people suspected to have died after drinking contaminated water in Indore’s Bhagirathpura neighbourhood. Investigations are still going on but officials say that a pipeline leak led to sewage mixing with drinking water, leading to a diarrhoea outbreak in the area.

The exact death toll remains unclear. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said postmortem reports have so far confirmed four deaths linked to contaminated drinking water.

But the number is likely to increase. While state minister Kailash Vijayvargiya says he has heard about eight deaths so far, local journalists told BBC Hindi that the toll is close to 14.

More than 200 people have been admitted to hospitals in the city.

Over the past week, around 40,000 residents of Bhagirathpura – a neighbourhood of largely poor and lower-middle income families – were screened by health authorities and around 2,450 cases of vomiting and diarrhoea were identified, said the government.

The deaths in Indore – often ranked India’s cleanest city – have sparked an uproar and put the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the defensive.

District Magistrate Shivam Verma said the leak that caused the contamination has been fixed and officials are checking for others. One municipal officer has been dismissed and two suspended.

“It should not have happened in the first place. We have set up a committee to investigate the matter, and no stone will be left unturned to make sure that it does not happen again,” Chief Minister Yadav told the media.

The local municipal corporation is currently supplying water to Bhagirathpura through tankers. Residents say they have been told not to use tap water until further notice.

While government teams conduct inspection drives in Bhagirathpura, families are grieving.

Sanjay Yadav, a tailor, says his 69-year-old mother started vomiting on the evening of 26 December.

“We took her to a hospital, but she died in less than 24 hours,” said Mr Yadav, whose 11-month-old son is also unwell.

His neighbour Sudha Pal’s 76-year-old father Nandalal Pal also died after a bout of severe diarrhoea.

“The tap water in our house is still contaminated and it stinks,” she says.

“The water smelt foul, but we never thought it could kill someone,” said Arun Prajapat, who alleges that his mother Seema died after consuming the contaminated water.

According to media reports, residents of Bhagirathpura had complained about the foul-smelling and contaminated water for more than two months before the diarrhoea outbreak.

When asked about this, local councillor Kamal Waghela of the BJP told news agency ANI on Thursday that Indore’s sewage and water pipelines need a lot of repairs and that work had been progressing in most areas.

Jitu Patwari of the opposition Congress, however, accused the BJP government of misgovernance and hiding the actual number of deaths.

“Indore has consistently given votes to the BJP but they have given poisoned water instead,” he told ANI.

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