What began as a quiet tragedy inside a small home in Indore has unfolded into a major public health emergency. Five-and-a-half-month-old Avyan Sahu died after consuming infant formula prepared with municipal tap water contaminated by sewage in the Bhagirathpura area.
His death is now being seen as part of a wider outbreak of waterborne illness that has affected hundreds of residents, hospitalising over a hundred and claiming multiple lives, according to officials and local estimates.
While the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has acknowledged pipeline damage and sewage ingress, launched health screenings, and initiated repairs, residents allege that early complaints about foul-smelling water were ignored. As political blame-shifting grows and inquiries are announced, the incident has raised urgent questions about governance, infrastructure neglect, and the fragile safety net that urban India’s poorest depend upon.
A Child Long Awaited, Lost to a Preventable Cause
Inside a narrow lane in Bhagirathpura, grief hangs heavy. Avyan Sahu was born on 8 July 2025, ten years after his parents, Sunil and Sadhana Sahu, were married. His arrival followed years of prayers, temple visits, and medical consultations.
For the family, Avyan was not just another child but a symbol of hope, a long-awaited blessing that many around them described as completing the family. Doctors had informed Sadhana before delivery that her body was not producing sufficient breast milk a condition not uncommon and advised packaged infant formula mixed with boiled water.
Like thousands of households in Indore, the Sahus relied on their kitchen tap for daily needs, unaware that the water flowing through it carried deadly bacteria.
Two days before the incident, Avyan developed fever and diarrhoea. Medicines were prescribed, but vomiting persisted and his condition deteriorated rapidly.
By Sunday night, he was rushed to hospital, but doctors could not save him. The cause, they later said, was a severe bacterial infection consistent with consumption of contaminated water.
The realisation struck painfully: the very water used to nourish him had likely killed him. As Sadhana sits silently in one corner of the now-empty room, and Avyan’s grandmother repeats, “God gave us happiness after ten years, and then God took it away,” the family’s private grief has become a public symbol of systemic failure.
When a ‘Cleanest City’ Runs Toxic at the Tap
Bhagirathpura is not a remote settlement lacking basic services. It lies within Indore, a city repeatedly ranked among India’s cleanest and most well-managed urban centres. Yet, over the past weeks, residents across several localities began reporting foul-smelling, discoloured water from municipal taps.
Soon, cases of diarrhoea, vomiting, dehydration, and fever surged. Hospitals reported a steady influx of patients, many of them children and elderly residents. Official figures confirm that more than 140 people remain hospitalised, while health teams have screened thousands of residents door-to-door.
While authorities have officially acknowledged fewer deaths, local leaders and residents claim the toll is significantly higher, fuelling anger and mistrust.
Municipal officials have admitted that damaged pipelines and faulty construction allowed sewage to mix with drinking water lines. Reports suggest that the contamination may have originated near a police outpost where a toilet without proper sewage management allegedly leaked waste into nearby pipelines.
The IMC has since shut down affected water lines, begun emergency repairs, deployed water tankers, intensified chlorination, and advised residents to boil water before use.
An internal inquiry has been ordered, and some officials have reportedly been suspended or transferred. Yet, for many families, these steps feel reactive rather than preventive, arriving only after irreversible harm was done.
Ignored Warnings, Unequal Burdens
Residents insist the disaster did not strike without warning. Several households recall noticing an unusual smell in the water days some say weeks before the outbreak intensified. Complaints were raised, but many allege they were either dismissed or inadequately addressed.
In neighbourhoods where buying bottled water or installing purifiers is a luxury, residents had little choice but to continue using tap water. For daily-wage workers, domestic helpers, and migrant families, municipal water is not just a service it is the only option.
The incident has also exposed the uneven distribution of risk in urban India. While some households could stop using tap water at the first sign of trouble, others unknowingly continued, bearing the brunt of the crisis. Children like Avyan, with weaker immune systems, became the most vulnerable victims.
Public health experts warn that waterborne outbreaks are rarely sudden; they are the result of cumulative neglect aging infrastructure, poor monitoring, delayed responses, and a lack of accountability across agencies responsible for urban planning, sanitation, and health.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Avyan’s death is not an isolated tragedy it is a mirror held up to our collective priorities. A city celebrated for cleanliness rankings failed to ensure the most basic requirement of human dignity: safe drinking water. Civic awards, political speeches, and urban branding mean little when infrastructure beneath the surface is allowed to rot. This crisis reminds us that governance is not measured by accolades but by outcomes, especially for the most vulnerable.
At The Logical Indian, we believe that empathy must guide accountability, and dialogue must lead to reform. Families deserve transparent investigations, not bureaucratic deflection.
Residents deserve timely action, not post-tragedy assurances. Safe water is not a privilege; it is a fundamental right. If a city cannot protect its infants from something as basic as drinking water, it must urgently re-examine its systems, priorities, and moral compass.
