Cities can't be clean only on dashboards

Cities like to boast about rankings and glossy scorecards. But none of that counts when the water flowing into homes carries disease instead of life. The toll from consuming contaminated water in Indore's Bhagirathpura neighbourhood continues to rise - 16 deaths and more than 140 people hospitalised - as a diarrhoea outbreak lays bare a grave public health failure. This is a tragedy wherever it occurs. But that it happened in Indore, a city repeatedly ranked the cleanest in the country, raises uncomfortable questions about conditions in other places. What makes the episode even more disturbing is that it was not unforeseen. Comptroller and Auditor General audit reports, dating back to 2019, have flagged serious concerns about water management in Indore, including the risk of contamination.

This crisis of urban governance is not limited to water alone. Variations of the same failure can be seen across towns and cities - untreated sewage being reused, garbage left uncollected, sky-high landfills turning into public health hazards, potholed roads and missing manhole covers. Poor infrastructure design, compounded by shoddy maintenance, corners cut during the tendering process and poor execution, as well as the endless digging up of roads in the name of improvement projects, steadily erodes urban living standards.

Fixing this urban crisis demands stronger systems and oversight, real accountability, regular maintenance and upgrades, and administrations that respond to citizens rather than ignore them. Urban local bodies must deliver the basics: clean water, effective waste management and safe roads. Business as usual will not deliver the smart cities promised under Viksit Bharat. Without a fundamental shift in attitude, more Bhagirathpuras are inevitable.