Super contamination league jolts Indore locality's residents

New Delhi: In 2024-25, Indore, along with Surat and Navi Mumbai, moved into an elite class - Super Swachh League (SSL) - of 'consistently high-performing cities' in India's annual flagship cleanliness survey. Ironically, Bhagirathpura tragedy, which has claimed about 10 lives due to contaminated drinking water, has come within months of Indore moving into this new category.

The tragedy, which has affected 1,400 residents of this old Indore locality, has exposed chinks in parameters used for Swachh Survekshan rankings, which have been used to gauge the impact of Swachh Bharat Mission on cleanliness levels and behavioural change. In 2024-25 ranking, which saw Indore moving into the elite category, 4,589 urban local bodies were evaluated on parameters such as visible cleanliness, waste segregation and processing, sanitation infrastructure, water and wastewater management, mechanised faecal sludge handling, advocacy for cleanliness, institutional effectiveness, sanitation worker welfare and citizen feedback.

Tender opened after deaths


The parameters, however, do not reflect how sanitation complaints are handled. In case of Bhagirathpura, the administration has now traced the contamination to a leak in the main drinking water pipeline near a public toilet beside a police outpost. Officials suspect that sewage entered the drinking water line through this breach. Investigations have revealed that the tender for replacing the Bhagirathpura pipeline was floated as early as August 2025 at an estimated cost of ₹2.4 crore, specifically citing complaints of dirty and foul-smelling water but no work began. Right before deaths, residents had lodged formal complaints of foul-smelling water for two months. The tender was opened only after the recent deaths.

Interestingly, Indore has been bumped up into SSL category as it has been topping Swachh Survekshan rankings for a record eight years starting 2017. The mission was launched on October 2, 2014, as a nationwide campaign to achieve Clean India and eliminate open defecation.

The first Swachh Survekshan 2016 was conducted across 73 cities and Indore was ranked under 'Aspiring Leaders' as 25th. It topped the rankings the very next year. The city has made efforts to clean streets, segregate garbage at source, effectively manage waste and completely remove landfill sites. But the tragedy has exposed administrative apathy.