New Delhi
Water conservationist Rajendra Singh, popularly known as the ‘Waterman of India’, has termed the Indore water contamination tragedy a “disaster created by a corrupt system”. He said the deaths caused by polluted drinking water in the city reflect deep administrative negligence and alleged corruption in civic infrastructure. If such an incident can occur in Indore, often celebrated as India’s cleanest city, the situation in other regions could be far worse, he warned.
Singh alleged that to cut costs, contractors frequently lay drinking water pipelines dangerously close to drainage lines, leading to serious risks of contamination. According to him, such careless planning and corruption have destroyed the reliability of the drinking water supply system.
Indore’s Bhagirathpura locality witnessed multiple deaths, including that of a six-month-old child, following an outbreak of vomiting and diarrhoea attributed to polluted water. Officials have issued conflicting death tolls, but acknowledged a leak in the main water pipeline near a toilet structure as the likely source of contamination.
Singh further criticised the city’s continued heavy dependence on Narmada river water for decades without strengthening local water management, adding that large funds spent on the system reportedly suffer from corruption and inefficiency.
