The recent deaths of over 16 persons (with unofficial estimates suggesting the number could be as high as 20), coupled with an outbreak of diseases and the hospitalisation of hundreds in Indore—one of the nation’s most reputedly clean cities—underscore significant concerns regarding drinking water contamination and the response by state and municipal authorities. A recent report from the Union government, conducted under the Jal Jeevan Mission, revealed that 38.7% of drinking water samples from rural areas in Madhya Pradesh were deemed non-potable, highlighting ongoing risks within village water supply systems.
Another report by the MP State Pollution Control Board had cautioned mixing of sewage with drinking water sources in Bhagirathpura, one of the hotspots along with 58 other spots in Indore, way back in 2016-17. Sadly, such assessments are not seriously taken. There are now reports of sewage contamination of drinking water in Gandhinagar in Gujarat and Bangalore, which are reportedly grappling with a similar public health scare. Additionally, a report of the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has noted that many states, especially Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh, face widespread contamination. It pointed out that arsenic contamination is a major concern in the Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins, and despite various studies is largely prevalent in West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha, and very little has been done to counter such contamination in an effective manner. Uranium contamination, though less widespread, has been sporadically detected in parts of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.
The highest uranium concentration was observed in Punjab, where over half of the samples exceeded the limit, followed by Haryana, Karnataka and UP. Discharge of untreated industrial waste, excessive use of fertilisers and pesticides, improper waste disposal, and sewage leakage in urban areas and over-extraction in groundwater may be listed as key factors for groundwater quality decline.
If even warnings do not matter and if a minimum need of potable water cannot be supplied to the suburbs of a big city, one may imagine the situation in remote and backward areas of the country. It is indeed tragic that after over 75 years of Independence, safe and potable water cannot be supplied throughout the length and breadth of the country, though we now claim to have emerged as the fourth largest economy.
As per government figures under Jal Jeevan Mission, 81% of rural households have tap water connections under the Jal Jeevan Mission, as of mid-2025. Though the figures may not be realistic, the prob lem lies in the quality of water. It has repeatedly been stressed that there is an urgent need to invent a low-cost spectrometer that measures TDS, heavy metals, nitrates, phosphates and microbial indicators. Whether AI can help in this regard is not known, but it is understood that experiments to this effect are being carried out by various research institutions. This is necessary as clean water must be made available at around 5 per 20 litres per family, as the supply system may not be dependable.
It is a well-known fact that water contamination in India has high economic costs, due to the health and environmental impacts of it. The cost of environmental degradation due to water contamination is estimated to be $80 billion a year, whereas the health costs are estimated to be $6.7-8.7 billion per year.
Protocols for monitoring water quality are largely absent in much of the country, raising concerns about the effectiveness of state pollution control boards and municipal bodies in providing safe drinking water. Most citizens rely on municipal supplies and lack resources to regularly purify their water, so ensuring free potable water should be a top priority for any government. The big question is, how soon will the ruling elite recognise the urgency?
