Bhopal: The shadow of Indore’s deadly water contamination crisis now looms over the state capital. Residents of Bhopal’s Karond area are living in fear after it was discovered that drinking water and sewage lines are dangerously overlapping within a single chamber. This structural failure has raised immediate alarms about “poison” flowing through household taps.
A recipe for disaster: Overlapping lines
The crisis centers on Karond, where the proximity of water supply valves and submerged sewage lines has made contamination a daily reality.
Experts warn that even a minor pressure drop can suck raw sewage into the potable water supply through loose joints. Reports of muddy, foul-smelling water have already flooded the municipal call center, with residents in Eidgah Hills and HFA colonies reporting similar hazards.
Political protests and the Indore comparison
The issue has ignited a political firestorm. Congress leaders, led by Manoj Shukla, staged protests on Thursday, warning that Bhopal is under the same threat that recently claimed seven lives in Indore’s Bhagirathpura. “We are seeing the same negligence here. If these lines aren’t separated immediately, we will gherao the Municipal Commissioner’s office,” Shukla warned, demanding accountability for the “single-chamber” supply system.
Municipal alert and mass sampling
In response to the growing outcry, Mayor Malti Rai has ordered an emergency inspection of all high-risk areas. Over 300 water samples were collected on Thursday from overhead tanks and slums to assess the scale of the risk. While the administration claims to be on “high alert,” the recurring complaints from JNNURM and BDA colonies suggest a systemic failure in Bhopal’s aging infrastructure that requires more than just temporary sampling.
