Indore Water Contamination Deaths: Judicial Commission Says Tragedy Was Preventable, Flags Institutional Failure
New Delhi: A Judicial Commission that was constituted to investigate the death of more than 30 people owing to water contamination in Indore has found that the tragedy could have been prevented and was a result of institutional failure, systematic lapses and delays in replacing the ageing infrastructure, reported The Hindu.
“The Commission, therefore, concludes that the Bhagirathpura contaminated water incident was not the result of a single act of negligence but was the cumulative consequence of failures occurring at different stages over several decades,” the report has concluded.
However, the report, submitted by the one-member Commission of former Madhya Pradesh high court judge Sushil Kumar Gupta on August 18, has linked only 22 deaths to the tragedy, citing hospital records.
The report has highlighted a 72-day delay in the tender process to replace the damaged water pipeline. The delay took place between October 15 and December 26, 2025, just days before the tragedy struck
“This constitutes the principal and abnormal delay in the entire tender process. Once the Additional Commissioner recorded ‘Discuss,’ it was expected that: clarifications would be prepared promptly, objections would be resolved, and the file would be re-submitted without undue delay. Instead, the file remained pending for about 72 days,” the report notes.
The Commission’s report noted that then Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) additional commissioner (water supply) Rohit Sisonia and then executive engineer (water supply) Sanjeev Shrivastava were “primarily responsible” for several delays.
The report has also slammed the IMC and the Indore Development Authority (IDA) for failing to produce records including inspection reports and documents.
“The explanation regarding destruction of records in 2010 is unsupported by documentary evidence. No note-sheet, destruction register, or approval record has been produced to establish that the missing records were lawfully destroyed,” says the report.
The report adds that of the 52 water samples taken by the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) during the tragedy, 50 were found positive for total coliform and 40 for E. Coli, confirming bacterial contamination of the water, reported The Hindu.
“The immediate cause of contamination was the ingress of sewage into the drinking water distribution system, while the root cause lay in the improper planning and execution of the sewerage network itself,” says the report.
The vomiting and diarrhoea outbreak in Bhagirathpura started on December 29 last year, causing the deaths while more than 400 patients were admitted to hospitals. The opposition had slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Madhya Pradesh over the tragedy.
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