A probe into the incident has now revealed the cause of the diarrhoea outbreak in Indore that resulted in mass deaths and hospitalisations. Reports also indicate that serious lapses and administrative failures are behind the tragedy that could have been prevented.
We take a look.
Contaminated water kills over 10 in Indore
At least 10 people have died in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore after consuming contaminated water supplied by the municipal corporation. An infant and at least six women were among the deceased.
Almost 2,800 people fell ill and over 100 from
While the government has put the death toll at four, local reports claim that 15 people have died due to the contamination.
Geeta Bai, who had been undergoing treatment for the past eight days, passed away last night, becoming the latest victim of the tragedy.
The families who lost their kin blame the contaminated water for the death of their loved ones.
Sunil Sahu, who lost his six-month-old son to the tragedy, told
Following this, the toddler showed symptoms of fever and diarrhoea. He was taken to a doctor who prescribed medicines, but the baby’s condition kept deteriorating. By Sunday night, he became critical and died the next day on the way to the hospital.
"I believe the water we mixed into the milk harmed him," Sunil, whose family waited a decade for a body, said. "My wife couldn't produce milk, so we added water to packaged milk, as advised by doctors. We used Narmada tap water. We never imagined it was so polluted. He had diarrhoea for two days. We gave him medicine. Then suddenly he collapsed. Only later did people here tell us the truth," he added.
"We are poor. Our son has a private job. That's what runs the house. We cannot accuse anyone. God gave us happiness... and then took it away," Sunil's mother lamented.
A man whose father and aunt are admitted to the hospital told Indian Express, “Our aunt, Nirmala Prajapat, and my father, Indar Prajapat, are in serious condition. If anything happens to them, I don’t know what I will do.”
Was the Indore tragedy preventable?
Reports claim the contaminated water tragedy in Indore, officially touted as India's ‘cleanest city’, could have been prevented.
Last year, Indore received 266 complaints about water quality across the city, with Zone 4, which includes Bhagirathpura, recording 23 formal complaints, as per an
The first complaint regarding water quality in Bhagirathpura was made two months ago. Dinesh Bharati Verma flagged concern about the well water near a local temple in the congested area in Indore’s Ward 11.
“The borewell water is mixing with drain water… clean water is essential for those visiting the temple and ashram,” his complaint read.
The problem only grew from there. By mid-November, another resident, Shivani Thakle, filed another urgent complaint: “There is acid in the dirty water.”
On December 18, residents complained of a “foul stench” in the Narmada water supply. By the 28th of the last month, Ganesh Paraskar and Yash Parewa reported that “90 per cent of Ward 11 was falling ill — severe vomiting, diarrhoea, dehydration”.
Sewage mixed with drinking water has been blamed for Indore's tragedy.
Sources told NDTV that a tender for replacing the Bhagirathpura pipeline was floated in August 2025, at an estimated cost of Rs 2.4 crore, citing complaints of dirty and foul-smelling water.
However, the report claims no work or repair was carried out on the new water supply line in the area. The tender was opened quickly, only after people started dying.
"This is not failure. This is abandonment," a senior water department official said to the news channel on condition of anonymity.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav meets an affected person undergoing treatment after consumption of contaminated water, at a hospital in Indore, December 31, 2025. PTI
Officials consider this negligence to be one of the main causes behind the tragedy.
As per Indian Express’ sources in the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC), a file was prepared for putting down a new Narmada water pipeline over a year before the outbreak.
The tender was floated following inspection by senior corporation officials, who found that water pipelines needed to be fixed. The file was prepared on November 12, 2024, and a tender was floated in the middle of last year.
However, the work order to begin the final phase of the project was passed only on December 26, 2025, just when the casualties started being reported.
Corporator Kamal Waghela, who has jurisdiction over Bhagirathpura, confirmed the sequence of events to Indian Express. However, he alleged that the file was “kept unnecessarily pending for nearly seven months”.
In a letter to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on December 31, Waghela claimed that despite several follow-ups, officials kept saying that the matter was “under process”. Only after he approached the mayor, a tender was eventually issued on July 30, 2025, “after excessive delay”. Still, the process was delayed and not completed within the prescribed timeframe.
“This incident is not merely an administrative lapse, but the result of grave criminal negligence that deliberately endangered public health. Prima facie, this case falls under gross dereliction of duty, contempt of orders and violation of public health laws,” Waghela reportedly wrote.
Additional Commissioner Rohit Sisonia, the official in charge of looking into the tenders, has, however, dismissed the allegations. “It is false to say that there was no work on repairing the water pipelines. There are mainly three lines — the main line, the distribution line, and the final household line that connects homes to the water supply.”
Sisonia said the repair process had been staggered and partly integrated with the AMRUT 2.0, a central government scheme to make cities “water secure” and self-reliant.
“The tender in question was launched several months ago. But under the AMRUT 2.0 Yojana, we were already working on water pipeline alignment across the city. How can we then begin work on the tender when that could be a cause for financial misappropriation?” he told the newspaper.
What has the probe revealed?
A laboratory test confirmed that the diarrhoea outbreak in Indore was caused by contaminated drinking water. Indore’s Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) Dr Madhav Prasad Hasani told reporters on Thursday (January 1) that the lab report, prepared by the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Medical College, revealed drinking water was polluted due to a leakage in a pipeline in the Bhagirathpura area.
The report confirmed bacterial contamination in 26 of the more than 70 water samples collected from various locations in the area, Indore Divisional Commissioner Sudam Khade told The Hindu.
#IndoreWaterCrisis | Lab tests confirm contaminated drinking water caused Indore’s diarrhoea outbreak
Leak found in the main water supply pipeline in Bhagirathpura. @akankshaswarups with a detailed report pic.twitter.com/sZxFJM50zi
— News18 (@CNNnews18) January 2, 2026
According to officials, the contamination has been traced to a leak in the main drinking water pipeline near a public toilet beside the Bhagirathpura police outpost.
The toilet was reportedly built on a drinking water line without any safety tank underneath.
What are the authorities doing?
The MP government jumped into action following the casualties. CM Yadav has promised a thorough probe into the incident, saying the government will not tolerate any negligence.
A three-member committee, headed by IAS officer Navjeevan Panwar, has been formed to investigate the tragedy in Bhagirathpura. The panel will also reportedly probe the delays in completing the tender issued in August for a fresh water supply line in the area.
MP Urban Development Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya has said that the tender will be cleared by January 2.
A statement from the Chief Medical and Health Officer said that more than 48,400 people have been in the affected area. Nearly 2,800 people were found to have symptoms after drinking contaminated water. “To date, a total of 272 patients have been admitted to hospitals, of which 71 have been discharged. Currently, the number of patients hospitalised is 201, and the number of patients in the ICU is 32,” it said.
Three officers, including in-charge sub-engineer Shubham Shrivastava of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department of the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC), zonal officer Shaligram Sitole and assistant engineer Yogesh Joshi, have been suspended following the tragedy.
Water tankers have also been provided in the affected area.
Additional Chief Secretary Sanjay Dubey told PTI, “We are closely examining the entire drinking water supply pipeline in Bhagirathpura to find out if there is any leakage elsewhere.” He said that clean water was supplied to households in Bhagirathpura through the pipeline on Thursday after inspection. As a precaution, people have been told to use the water for drinking only after boiling it.
“We have also taken samples of this water and sent them for testing,” Dubey said.
The senior bureaucrat said that a standard operating procedure (SOP) will be issued for the entire state to prevent any such tragedy in future.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notices to state authorities and sought a status report by January 2.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also issued a notice to Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary Anurag Jain, seeking a detailed report on the matter within two weeks.
With inputs from agencies
