Ten people, including infants, have died, and the toll may rise, as over a thousand people have reportedly fallen ill after they drank contaminated water in Indore city. The pathogenic E. coli-contaminated water was supplied to them through the government’s water supply system. Happy new year, or a wake up call to our Jal Jeevan Mission? What makes the situation even more ghastly is the fact that Indore, as per the Jal Jeevan Mission website, claims to have 15,77,78,447 households with government tap water connections as of January 2, 2026. This amounts to about 81.49% coverage in the city, and Indore is one of the highly connected districts. Now the ‘Har ghar jal’ scheme being a flagship programme claims to have stringent water quality measures placed across regions from the panchayat level to the centrally recognised laboratories that are checking the water quality. So why did these monitoring and check measures fail to prevent the death of innocent children and adults in Indore? Interestingly, in the last budget speech, the Union finance minister increased the budget of the programme to Rs 67,000 crore and ambitiously declared that it will cover most of India by 2028. With excessive citizen taxation, the government has new funds, but we still don’t know if the previous budget was utilised effectively. Gauging from the quality of piped water in the country and recent deaths in Indore, one could have their confidence in the government’s programme shaken. But lets pause for a second and zoom out. Is this a singular phenomenon? Is it time to reflect on state of the water system that includes rivers, lakes, ground water, etc?Also read: Gujarat Typhoid Outbreak: Sewage Contaminates Drinking Water Network, Over 100 Cases ReportedLet’s look at our national capital where we have uranium-contaminated water running through our taps. The Central Ground Water Board reported a significant rise in uranium contamination, noting that nearly 13% of groundwater samples collected before the monsoon and about 15% of those collected after the monsoon showed elevated levels of the element. This marks an increase from 11.7% recorded in 2020.When we look at the Yamuna, each year the government has to add anti-foaming chemicals to ensure that toxic froth does not fill the river in Delhi. The wastes from sugar industries and agrichemical runoff are all dumped into the river Yamuna along with untreated sewage. Despite strict environmental protection rules, our surface and groundwater are both heavily polluted. One trip to one’s nearest natural water body (lake, pond, river, etc) will depict the real picture. Meanwhile ,the Namami Ganga programme has entered its 2.0 version and proudly reports the operational status of 157 STPs, but is that enough? Or has the water of the Ganga become drinkable again? The government’s own report pointed to high level of faecal matter and pathogens in Ganga during the grand Mahakumbh 2025. Also read: Indore Water Contamination Deaths: Govt Survey Had Flagged Risks as Early as 2016-17So wherever one looks in the water department, there lie big toxic gaps between the policy on paper and state of water on the ground. The consequence of this misrepresentation is of course dead children and a diseased society and ecosystem. On the one hand, we are encouraging water exploitation through subsidising water guzzling crops like paddy and turning a blind eye towards the timber mafia that, with political patronage, are denuding our catchment areas. Even in a flare of judicial activism, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of mining of the Aravali ranges. Currently it appears that from the political to the judiciary, all are hell bent on destruction of our water. The water jumlaIf we round up many of our nation’s water schemes, we find thousands of crores have been spent in the last decade. Yet India’s per capita water availability has already fallen from 1,486 m³ in 2021 to a projected 1,367 m³ by 2031, well below the water stress threshold of 1,700 m³. Erratic climate is a major cause in recent years, but the biggest devourer of our fresh water is pollution and contamination. And sadly, both these factors are unchecked. Instead real ecological solutions which involve wetland development, spreading of organic agriculture on banks of the rivers and other natural methods are overlooked for profit making industrial solutions. The Ganga by itself would need thousands of STP plants to clean her, because of the heavy pollution. For reasons unknown, the government has failed to act against the polluters. One can scan their own memories and ask, when was the last time they heard a representative of a polluting industry or a timber mafia being sent to prison? The answer may take a while to appear. Also read: Gurugram Was Never a Liveable CityThe deaths in Indore are a brutal reminder of our failed water policy and mismanaged water. This is a time for deeper contemplation and perhaps the government needs to adopt a decentralised community-driven water management approach, and not a centralised one. Each block and the community – urban or rural – needs to be brought on board as stakeholders to check and regulate water quality. Communities should be financially incentivised to restore older/traditional water saving structures. The water boards should be expanded and real-time monitoring of piped water should be accessible to citizens, so that another tragedy doesn’t occur. Mobile alerts can be sent, the government has most of the Aadhaar cards linked to mobile number anyways. With the current crisis, the government could be tempted to privatise our city water supply, but that would be catastrophic for our water rights and water sovereignty. Hence the government needs to pull up and reform and not corporatise.One longs for the day our policy makers – bureaucrats and politicians – drink the same government-supplied water every day as the slum dwellers so nobody falls sick or dies. And the Indian tax payer is not paying for RO filters and purified water bottles at the water ministry and our parliament. In Amrit Kaal, amrit (elixir) or at least clean water should flow through our taps, and not poison, right? Indra Shekhar Singh is an independent agri-policy analyst and writer.