Judicial probe links 22 Indore deaths to decades-old water pipeline design flaw

A judicial commission headed by former judge Justice Sushil Kumar Gupta submitted a 112-page report to the Madhya Pradesh High Court, concluding that 22 deaths in Indore last December resulted from sewage-tainted municipal water. The investigation traced the problem to a sewerage project (1990-95) and a water-pipeline system (1999-2004) built by the Indore Development Authority, which breached CPHEEO Manual standards and later developed cracks that allowed contamination.

Laboratory tests confirmed the presence of coliform bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella and Vibrio cholerae. The report named eight Indore Municipal Corporation officers for neglecting complaints and delaying tenders, leading the state to suspend them and initiate the Jal Suraksha Campaign, mandating water quality checks at treatment plants, distribution points and consumer taps, and introducing robotic leak-detection technology. Similar contamination issues have been reported in Bhopal, underscoring systemic failures across the region.