Mom dies, girl lives: One bottle saves a life amid Indore water crisis; did packaged water make all the difference?

INDORE: Hours after Jyoti Bhuse boarded a bus back to Aurangabad on the night of Dec 29, her mother fell ill due to contaminated water and died after contracting acute diarrhoea. Between them, a bottle of packaged water may have made all the difference.

When she finally visited her parents on December 29, Bhuse did what she always does: she carried her own packaged drinking water.



"I have a habit of carrying a water bottle," Bhuse said. "That day too, I drank only from the packaged water I brought." Her mother, Manjula Vade, 74, did not. A practising tax consultant, Bhuse travelled from Aurangabad to Indore 2 days earlier to briefly visit her elderly parents and meet 2 of her sisters, both married and settled in the city. Instead of going straight to her parents' home in Bhagirathpura, she stayed with her sister for 2 days.

That evening, the family had dinner together in their small 2-room house, measuring about 10 by 20 feet. Bhuse left for the bus stand later that night and spoke to her mother at around 10.30 pm from the bus. Within hours, Manjula fell ill. She died after contracting acute diarrhoea, caused by contaminated drinking water supplied to the area.

Today, her father, Digambar Vade, 79, sits alone in the same house where he lived with his wife for decades. "She used to take care of everything," he said. "Now I am on my own." The couple has 5 daughters, all of whom rushed to Indore after Manjula's death. They are currently managing medical formalities, rituals, and household expenses. However, they say the loss left their father vulnerable. "This happened because of a failure in the system," one of the daughters said. "Our father is old and left alone. The govt must take responsibility for his care."

Digambar said the compensation announced by authorities will be largely spent on cremation and final rites expenses. "Whatever remains, I will use for my health," he said.

For Bhuse, the contrast is impossible to ignore. "The same water that took my mother's life could have taken mine too," she said. "That bottle saved me."

In Bhagirathpura, civic teams began cleaning lanes and inspecting pipelines following reports of water contamination and illness.

But for the Vade family, the crisis already left an irreversible mark, a reminder that access to safe drinking water, often taken for granted, can determine who lives and who does not.