2 Tragedies, A Month Apart. Husband, Wife Die Due To Water Contamination

Indore's Bhagirathpura did not just lose water quality. It lost an entire family's sense of safety ... slowly, thirteen days at a time. On December 28, seventy-year-old Urmila Yadav died after suffering bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea. Thirteen days later, just after her ritual mourning ended, her husband Alghuram Yadav fell ill. On Thursday night, nearly a month after being admitted to Aurobindo Hospital, Alghuram also died.

When NDTV went to meet Urmila Yadav's son on the third day after her death, a prayer ceremony was underway in the house. Incense burned softly, relatives sat in silence, and on a sofa in the corner lay Urmila's husband, Alghuram Yadav, exhausted but alive. Today, that image has turned into a memory. Alghuram too is no longer in this world.

Two deaths. One household. One water line.

Alghuram Yadav was admitted on January 9 with vomiting and diarrhoea and remained in hospital for weeks. The health department says he had multiple pre-existing conditions, including paralysis, a fracture in his right thigh bone, and other illnesses. But his family insists he was stable until January 8.

"My father was fine," said their son Sanjay Yadav, a tailor by profession. "He became sick only after my mother died. The same symptoms. The same water."

For Sanjay, the loss is layered with a grief that words fail to hold. Eleven months before Urmila fell ill, the family had welcomed a child after fifteen years of waiting. Urmila became a grandmother for the first time, a joy the family had prayed for. She got barely eight to ten months with her grandson.

"She was healthy by every measure that mattered," Sanjay said. "She walked on her own, managed the house. No serious illness. Then one evening, she vomited. By the next morning, she was in the ICU. By Sunday, she was gone."

The baby fell sick too. He was admitted to Chacha Nehru Hospital and discharged after being given 17-18 bottles of saline. He is home now, but weak. "That child came after fifteen years of prayers," Sanjay said quietly. "My mother didn't even get a year with him."

Residents say the warning signs were visible. Tap water had turned dirty days before the first illnesses. Drainage work was underway. Pipelines lay exposed. Complaints were raised. Nothing changed.

Urmila's nephew Vijay Yadav remembers the sequence with anger still raw. "My aunt died on December 28. On the 31st, her grandson was hospitalised. The day after her thirteen-day mourning, my uncle's health collapsed. He was taken to Aurobindo. We weren't even allowed to meet him."

When Alghuram's condition briefly improved, he was shifted to the general ward. Then he worsened again. After his death, the family was told comorbidities were the cause. Vijay disputes that. "They say he had other illnesses. The administration is lying," he said. "If that were true, why did the government pay hospital bills running into lakhs?"

The family received Rs 2 lakh in financial assistance from the Red Cross Society after Urmila's death. It helped with immediate expenses. It did not explain why two lives were lost in the same home, weeks apart, after drinking the same water.

So far, 33 deaths are being alleged by residents in Bhagirathpura due to contaminated water. The government has acknowledged 21. After the 22nd death, officials stopped attributing further fatalities to water contamination, citing "other illnesses" instead. In several cases, families say the cause of death has been officially denied despite identical symptoms.

Some households have lost more than one member. Of the 21 deaths the government recognises, families of 20 have received Rs 2 lakh each. For others, the fight is not just for compensation, but for acknowledgement.

The court has already questioned the state's version. In an earlier hearing, it called the death audit report an "eye-wash," flagged inconsistencies in the numbers, and constituted a committee headed by retired judge Sushil Kumar Gupta to probe the matter. The court directed that a clean water supply be ensured immediately and sought a report within four weeks. The next hearing is scheduled for March 5. Officially, more than 450 patients have been admitted and discharged so far. Three remain hospitalised.

Urmila and Alghuram Yadav are now two names in a growing count.