Water quality in the city has shown improvement in 2024 compared to 2020 according to a recent report released by Praja Foundation on Mumbai’s civic and environmental issues. Only 107 samples out of the 32,877 tested across the city’s 25 wards were declared unfit for consumption last year. However, complaints registered in the Centralised Complaint Registration System (CCRS) rose from 1369 in 2020 to 2083 in 2024.

Surprisingly, despite this, the city has witnessed a sharp rise in diarrhoea and cholera cases (both water borne diseases) in 2023 compared to 2019, As per the report, diarrhoea cases increased by 19 per cent, from 93,671 in 2019 to 1,11,928 in 2023, while cholera cases rose by a staggering 114 per cent, from 11 to 114 during the same period. This has raised a key question: Why are waterborne disease cases increasing despite improved water quality? And why are more people complaining about water issues?