Indore water crisis: 142 patients hospitalised; new diarrhoea cases detected

INDORE: As many as 142 people remain hospitalised, including 11 in intensive care units, following a diarrhoea outbreak triggered by contaminated drinking water in Indore, even as officials said the situation was now under control.Health teams identified 20 fresh cases during the screening of over 9,000 residents in Bhagirathpura, the epicentre of the outbreak. Officials said 9,416 people from 2,354 households were examined as part of an ongoing door-to-door survey.

According to the health department, 398 patients were admitted to hospitals since the outbreak began, of whom 256 have been discharged after recovery.The administration has confirmed six deaths, though there has been a dispute over the toll. Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava earlier put the figure at 10, while local residents claimed that 16 people, including a six-month-old infant, had died.Chief medical and health officer Dr Madhav Prasad Haasani said a team from the National Institute for Research in Bacterial Infections (NIRBI), Kolkata, has reached Indore to probe the outbreak and provide technical support to contain it.The outbreak sparked a political row, with the Congress holding protests across Madhya Pradesh, demanding the resignation of senior minister Kailash Vijayvargiya over his controversial remark while responding to questions on the water contamination issue.The Congress demanded a judicial inquiry and sought criminal action against the mayor and civic officials. State Congress president Jitu Patwari threatened statewide protests on January 11 if corrective steps were not taken.Patwari alleged residents of Bhagirathpura had been complaining for over eight months about contaminated tap water, claiming even tanker-supplied water was unsafe.Meanwhile, a sub-divisional magistrate in neighbouring Dewas was suspended for alleged negligence after reproducing portions of a political memorandum in an official order related to law-and-order arrangements during protests.Officials said the diarrhoea outbreak was caused after sewage overflow entered drinking water pipelines, leading to severe vomiting and diarrhoea cases.Water conservationist Rajendra Singh termed the incident a “system-created disaster”, alleging corruption in urban water supply planning. He said laying drinking water pipelines close to drainage lines had repeatedly resulted in contamination.Calling the incident alarming for a city consistently ranked as the cleanest in the country, Singh said it raised serious questions about drinking water systems in other urban centres as well.