Bhopal’s Vaishali Nagar has a serious water problem. Tests on tap water in the colony found E. coli bacteria, the same germ linked to the deaths of 36 people in Indore’s Bhagirathpura area. After a government lab confirmed the bacteria, about 200 families stopped drinking tap water. They now buy bottled water from the market.
Bhopal Resident Gets the Water Tested Himself
Vivek Rai, a local resident, was tired of getting dirty water at home for a long time. So he sent samples to the State Research Lab of the Pollution Control Board (PCB) himself. The results were worrying.
The first report, dated October 28, found 660 MPN of E. coli in 100 ml of water. The water was also cloudy, with turbidity of 5.9 NTU against a maximum limit of 5 NTU. Rai gave a second sample on November 12. The report on November 13 still showed 350 MPN of E. coli. In safe drinking water, the E. coli count should be zero.
M.K. Tripathi, a retired deputy at the NCRB, called the lab reports very serious. He said residents complained to the civic body after the first report. On November 2 and 3, a municipal team took samples from three nearby houses and said the results were negative. Two days later, the same dirty water was coming out of the taps again.
Bhopal Civic Body Defends Its Sampling as Opposition Raises Alarm
The municipal corporation says it collects more than 100 water samples every day across the city. Even so, residents feel their complaints were not taken seriously.
Council President Kishan Suryavanshi said a team was sent to the spot after the complaint and samples were taken. He said the bacteria has not been found anywhere else so far, but the corporation will take precautions.
Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar raised the issue on X. He said this was the second time in 16 days that dangerous bacteria had been found in the city’s water, and he called it administrative negligence. He claimed one sample showed 680 MPN of E. coli. He also pointed out that the same network supplies water to around 7 lakh people.
Residents think they know the cause. A sewer line runs close to the drinking water pipeline in the area. They suspect that when chambers in nearby Vayu Nagar overflow, sewage leaks into the water line. The Kolar network serves nine city zones through 1.35 lakh connections and delivers about 34 MLD of water daily.
This is not the first time. E. coli has been found in Bhopal’s water before, and areas near the gas factory and Niyamatpur near Idgah still face dirty water. In 2022, bacteria were found even after chlorination, which raised questions about the corporation’s monitoring system.
