One of the victims of the Indore water tragedy was a five-month-old child, who was born to his parents after 10 long years. Avyan Sahu from the Bhagirathpura area in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore was one of the four people who died after consuming tap water, which was contaminated with sewage water.
Avyan is the son of Sunil Sahu, who works for a private courier company. The family has a 10-year-old daughter, Kinjal, and Avyan was born a decade later. A healthy baby with no illness, Avyan couldn’t be breastfed because his mother’s body couldn’t produce milk. Hence, on the doctor’s advice, the child was fed formula milk, made using tap water.
The child developed a fever and diarrhea last week. He was taken to a doctor and given medication, but his condition continued to deteriorate. By Sunday night, he had become critical. On Monday morning, while his family rushed him to the hospital but he died on the way.
"No one told us the water was contaminated. We filtered it, added alum. The same water was flowing throughout the neighborhood. There was no warning, no information," Sunil told reporters.
What the lab report said
A laboratory test has confirmed that the vomiting-diarrhoea outbreak was caused by contaminated drinking water. Indore's Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) Dr Madhav Prasad Hasani told reporters that a laboratory report prepared by a city-based medical college confirmed drinking water was contaminated due to a leakage in a pipeline in the Bhagirathpura area.
The contamination reportedly happened due to a leakage in a pipeline. Officials claim that a leak was found in the main drinking water supply pipeline near a police outpost in Bhagirathpura, at a spot where a toilet has been constructed. They claimed the leakage led to contamination of the water supply in the area.
A survey was conducted at 1,714 households in Bhagirathpura on Thursday, of which 8,571 people were examined. As many as 338 showed symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea. In the eight days since the outbreak, 272 patients were admitted to local hospitals, of whom 71 have been discharged so far. At present, 201 patients are admitted in hospitals, including 32 in intensive care units (ICUs), the official added.