Indore water contamination deaths fallout of urban planning failure: Digvijaya

Bhopal, Jan 11 (PTI) Senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh on Sunday described the deaths due to contaminated water in Indore as a "fatal outcome of the failure of urban planning" and called for fixing accountability to prevent recurrence.

In a statement to media, the Rajya Sabha member also said such tragedies would continue to recur unless sewage and drinking water lines running through the "veins of the system" were completely separated.

Seven persons died recently in Indore's Bhagirathpura area following a diarrhoea outbreak triggered by the consumption of contaminated water, as per the health department, while local residents have claimed 17 deaths.

The Indore district collector has distributed compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to 18 affected families.

Singh said the water contamination tragedy was the "fatal outcome of the failure of urban planning".

He claimed that more than 20 persons lost their lives in the tragedy and said lives lost to contaminated water could neither be brought back nor could compensation mitigate the sorrow of their families.

"However, one thing can certainly be done. It must be ascertained when and how the sewage of negligence and corruption got mixed with the clean water system of responsibility, ethics and accountability," he said.

Emphasising the need to identify measures to prevent such incidents in the future, Singh said this was not merely a political responsibility but also a civic duty.

Citing a report by the International Centre for Sustainability, he claimed that nearly 70 per cent of India's water has been contaminated.

Singh said if people could die due to contaminated water in Indore, which has repeatedly earned the tag of India's cleanest city, it was not difficult to imagine that such deaths in remote and deprived areas often go unnoticed.

Ensuring access to safe drinking water had become a major challenge amid declining rural employment, migration and pressure from rapid urbanisation, he pointed out.

"This problem will not be solved merely by laying pipelines. Controlling illegal settlements, clearly separating sewage and drinking water lines and mandating a new master plan every ten years are essential," Singh said.

Advocating a shift from a contractor-centric to a citizen-centric system, he said that tragedies would continue to issue warnings unless sewage and drinking water lines were completely segregated. PTI LAL GK