A couple of news headlines have put the spotlight on India’s urban crisis. In Indore, which has repeatedly been adjudged as India’s cleanest city, has reported multiple deaths due to water contamination. Elsewhere, commenting on the urban decay across cities, Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, blamed it on poor planning and execution by local bodies. The above is the succinct summary of the problem and the wrong solution of putting the onus mostly on the last agency in the chain of command, while letting off the hook the BJP governments at the Centre and the State.
Indore health emergency is a classic case of inept administration, and political and governance failure at multiple levels. It was obvious that potable water supplied to households in a locality was contaminated with sewage. There was a foul smell, bitter taste and a change in colour. Yet, people consumed it, and the administration did not come to know of it or stop the water supply immediately. Nor did it have ongoing health surveillance and intervention plans. It is also not clear whether the regional media reported on it, which could have drawn the administration’s attention to the impending crisis.
Even after the outbreak, officials could not come up quickly with precise data on the number of people who died or those hospitalised, let alone the number of people fallen sick but not hospitalised, which is an indictment of the ineffective digital infrastructure in urban healthcare systems. Detailed lab tests may, in some cases, take time, but urgent and rapid tests and microbiological tests could have been done swiftly to help the administration in drawing up a comprehensive multipronged strategy to contain the problem.
It is true that such a problem could occur in any city, but better-managed cities have SOPs for prompt action to prevent avoidable loss of precious lives. Incidentally, over two dozen children in the State had died due to contaminated cough syrups, which was a result of widespread multi-level systemic failure.
Lastly, the controversial off-the-cuff remarks of State Minister and senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya, which were patently offensive and insensitive, point to the arrogance of a regime confident that it will not be punished by voters for lack of accountability. Repeatedly electing the same party despite issues would embolden them to behave in such a manner. Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi rightly described the State as “epicentre of misgovernance” and criticised not only negligent administration but also the national leadership of the BJP and its Union government.
The root cause can be traced to the city’s ageing water and sanitation infrastructure. Periodic inspection could have helped detect corrosion or possible contamination from nearby sewage lines, and initiating corrective steps could have prevented the crisis. It is now coming to light that bureaucratic red tape had stalled contracts for laying new pipelines. Moreover, according to a government document, River Kanh in Indore “has changed over time from a seemingly perennial river to a discharge drain for the city’s municipal wastewater and monsoon stormwater”.
Sometimes surface-level, cosmetic changes can win plaudits but bury complex problems. Fixing it calls for concerted action top-down - from the Centre and the State to the municipal level. A functioning democratic system should demand and ensure enforcement.