Deadly contamination in Indore highlights structural failures, while a rare 24/7 water model offers a public health alternative.
NEW DELHI — The deaths of at least 21 people in Indore after consuming contaminated tap water have once again exposed deep and recurring weaknesses in India’s urban water supply systems. Preliminary investigations point to leakages in a main drinking water pipeline, allowing sewage to mix with potable water — a failure officials say is rooted in ageing infrastructure and risky underground layouts.
The tragedy has renewed scrutiny of a long-standing problem across Indian cities: intermittent water supply systems that experts say are inherently prone to contamination. Yet, even as many states struggle with repeated outbreaks, one state — Odisha — has quietly been running an experiment that challenges a deeply held assumption in Indian households: that tap water cannot be safely consumed without filtration.
RELEVANT SUSTAINABLE GOALS
A Pattern of Failure in Urban Water Systems
Officials investigating the Indore deaths said water supply and sewerage networks in the affected area run dangerously close to each other underground, making contamination more likely when leaks occur. Similar incidents have been reported in other cities, including Bengaluru, underscoring that the problem is not confined to one region.
Despite decades of investment in urban infrastructure, large parts of India’s cities still rely on stop-start water supply systems. Under such systems, water flows only for limited hours each day, leaving pipelines depressurised for long periods. Experts say this creates ideal conditions for sewage and other pollutants to enter drinking water lines through cracks, joints or illegal connections
Odisha’s ‘Drink from Tap’ Experiment
As several states grapple with ageing pipelines and recurring contamination, Odisha has taken a markedly different approach.
Under its Drink from Tap mission, launched in 2017, the state began supplying potable water on a continuous, 24×7 basis across 11 cities: Puri, Gopalpur, Nimapada, Brahmapur, Champua, Rajgangpur, Birmitrapur, Rairangpur, Sundargarh, Hinjilicut and Anandpur.
According to state government data, more than 3.2 million people now receive uninterrupted tap water through over 600,000 household connections. Odisha says it is currently the only state in India to formally guarantee drinking water quality at the household tap level.
Changing Daily Life at the Tap
In Puri, the shift has been visible both inside homes and in public spaces.
Sunita Mishra, a jalasathi or “water friend” working under the programme, said household water-use habits have changed significantly. Jalasathis are engaged by the state to read water meters, collect charges, conduct field-level water quality tests and help households obtain new connections.
“Earlier, families without water purifiers either boiled water or bought filtered water from outside,” Mishra said. “Now, most households drink directly from the tap.”
She added that people are increasingly drinking from public taps instead of buying bottled water, reflecting growing confidence in the system.
Why Continuous Supply Matters
Officials and experts involved in the programme say its core principle is straightforward: constant pressurisation of pipelines.
“The main task is to ensure that no external pollutants enter the pipeline. A 24/7 water supply makes that possible,” said Pradeep Kumar Swain, former chief executive of the Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO), which implements the mission.
Swain is now a member of the National Task Force on 24×7 water supply under the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
In cities with intermittent supply — which describes most of urban India — pipelines lose pressure when water is not flowing. This creates a vacuum effect, allowing contaminated water to be sucked in through weak points.
“Leakages are inevitable in any city’s pipe network,” Swain said. “In a continuous supply, despite leakages, the pipeline remains pressurised. Leakages will occur from the pipe to the outside, but outside water can never enter the pipeline.”
The Sewerage–Pipeline Problem
Continuous pressurisation alone, experts caution, is not enough if underground layouts are flawed.
Across Indian cities, one of the most common triggers for contamination is the close proximity — and sometimes overlap — of sewerage and drinking water pipelines. This reflects decades of unplanned urban growth and the lack of dedicated utility corridors.
Guidelines from the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO) require a minimum horizontal separation of three metres and a vertical separation of one to 1.5 metres between sewer and water lines.
“If these distances are not maintained, contamination risk is always present,” Swain said, adding that proximity accounts for nearly 90 per cent of contamination cases in his experience.
To address this, Odisha made detailed asset mapping mandatory before rolling out 24×7 supply. Water pipelines were realigned or relocated where necessary.
In older and denser cities such as Kolkata, however, relocating pipelines is technically complex due to space constraints, traffic and existing construction.
Independent Water Quality Surveillance
Odisha has also restructured how water quality is monitored. To avoid conflicts of interest, the state created an independent Water Quality Assurance Cell under the Department of Housing and Urban Development, separating surveillance from supply operations.
Previously, laboratories reported to agencies responsible for water delivery, raising concerns about data independence, said Chinmay Tripathi, who worked with WATCO until 2024.
To strengthen credibility, the state partnered with Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar for third-party verification. Water quality is tested at city, regional and state laboratories, covering up to 69 parameters, with around 50 routinely monitored based on local risks.
The Odisha model also targets household-level contamination, common in intermittent systems where underground sumps and overhead tanks are widely used.
“In a 24×7 system, underground sumps and overhead tanks are discouraged,” Swain said, noting that they can themselves become contamination sources. In Puri, he said about 85 per cent of households have voluntarily removed storage tanks — a change officials attribute to growing trust in the system.
“The Odisha experience is now influencing national discussions on urban water reform. Under the AMRUT 2.0 mission, the Union government is encouraging states to move toward continuous, pressurised water supply.
Officials and water experts argue that, over the long term, such systems offer the only structural solution to prevent sewage and other pollutants from entering drinking water pipelines — and to avoid tragedies like the one that unfolded in Indore. For cities across India, the contrast is stark: between a system that repeatedly reacts to contamination after lives are lost, and one that seeks to prevent it before it begins.
