I went to Brahmaputra Apartments in Noida’s Sector 29 to hear residents out, expecting complaints and unanswered questions over contaminated water. What they showed me went far beyond a routine civic grievance. This was a public health crisis that had settled into daily life, unchallenged, and almost accepted.
This is not a neglected slum or an unauthorised settlement. This is a gated society housing retired defence officers, senior professionals and families who moved here believing they were buying safety, infrastructure and dignity. Several residents told me most flats are now valued at around Rs 6 crore.
At the gate, the security guard studied my press card longer than necessary before lifting the intercom. “Media se aayi hai,” he announced. Within seconds, the barrier rose, and I was let in. The machinery of order working perfectly at the entrance, even as basic safety failed inside.
What followed was harder to process.
Residents spoke of exhaustion that doesn’t lift, stomach illnesses that keep returning, skin boils that refuse to heal. Diarrhoea, nausea, chronic fatigue and boils are no longer isolated complaints but recurring patterns across households. Every family in this society is battling with one or more of these ailments.
Some residents said family members have fallen repeatedly ill, others described living with constant weakness and dehydration. Doctors, they were told, have advised them to stop using the water whenever contamination spikes. An advice that leaves families choosing between unsafe supply and no supply at all!
“People here are not just dealing with dirty water,” says Raman Kalia, an RWA member and resident. “There are complaints of fatigue, diarrhoea, nausea and skin-boils from every family. This is ongoing suffering, not a one-off incident.”
He adds that doctors have clearly linked the illnesses to the water supply. “Residents are in poor health. We are told to stop using the water when pollution rises. This cannot be treated as a routine inconvenience any more.”
In a society built around the promise of security and order, illness has become the most reliable constant.
A PROBLEM THAT IS NOT NEW AND NEVER GOES AWAY
Kalia, who has lived here for eight years, didn’t describe the water crisis as an emergency but as a cycle. “The problem is there throughout the year,” he told me. “It has always been there. It just keeps aggravating.”
What he laid out was not a single one-time failure, but a system that repeatedly slips, recovers partially, and slips again. “There are stages,” he said. “Contamination has a level.”
THE WATER STOPPED BEING 'JUST DIRTY'
“The major aggravation,” Raman said, “is when you start finding insects.” Dead, crawling insects inside running water. This happened once last year. It has happened again this year.
Storing water doesn’t help. Transferring it between tanks doesn’t help. Once insects appear, the logic of a pipeline leak collapses. “A burst pipe will add soil,” Raman said. “But it will not add insects.”
Finding insects, residents believe, indicates something far more serious, likely decomposition somewhere in the system. Possibly an animal carcass. Possibly stagnant contamination that authorities have failed to locate.
“That is dangerous,” he said. “Poisonous even.”
At that point, daily life collapses into survival math.
People begin using RO water to brush their teeth. During severe phases, some residents even bathe using RO water or bottled water. Those who don’t develop skin problems.
“This is not what people signed up for,” Raman said. “Not in a so-called millennium city.”
ARE POLICYMAKERS LISTENING?
On January 10, representatives from the society went to the water department office, repeatedly. “They told us to boil the water every time,” said retired Colonel PP Singh, who has been a resident in this society for the last few decades. “They told us to let the water run for 10 to 15 minutes until the muck clears.”
He looked genuinely incredulous as he spoke.
“How many houses are there in the colony?” he asked. “How much water wastage are they recommending?”
The contradiction here is brutal. The same administration that lectures residents about water scarcity and conservation is advising mass wastage as a workaround for contamination.
“This cannot be an acceptable routine,” he said.
Officials visited homes. They saw insects. Yet accountability seemed to bounce between departments, inspections, and vague assurances. “The complaint needs to be raised to a level where someone can actually solve it,” he said. “Not just inspect it.”
'DAUGHTER DEVELOPED BOILS', SAYS RESIDENT
The health impact is already visible. “My daughter developed small boils last year,” Raman told us. At first, the family didn’t connect it to water. No one routinely checks overhead tanks. Only after a resident flagged contamination did they investigate.
“When the water issue was fixed, the boils went away,” he said. But daily life doesn’t pause.
“You cannot stop bathing,” he said. “You cannot stop washing your face.”
This year, residents act faster. They avoid tap water entirely when contamination peaks. They rely on RO and bottled water, even though RO itself wastes water.
The irony isn’t lost on anyone.
WHAT ABOUT 'WATER TESTS'?
Residents have tried to be methodical. They’ve conducted water tests. Chlorine levels. Salt content. TDS.
“But how do you test for insects?” asked the retired colonel. “It is not visible to the naked eye,” he said. “If you are seeing live creatures in the water, it means these are newly born.” There could be larvae, eggs.
What makes the situation worse is storage. The same contaminated water enters overhead tanks and stagnates for months. “We cannot clean water tanks daily,” he said. “For three or four months, the water stays there.”
During that time, insects multiply. That water is then used to wash vegetables, utensils, clothes. “Somehow, it enters the body,” he said. “That is not healthy.” His concern wasn’t abstract. Brahmaputra Apartments houses elderly residents, children, and defence families.
“This needs priority attention,” he said. “This is not optional.”
AFFORDING SAFETY INSIDE GATED SOCIETY
Some residents install water softeners. Others order Bisleri jars in bulk. Some can afford this indefinitely. Some cannot. “People are doing whatever they can,” Raman said. “Some can manage. Some are forced to live with it.”
This is where the story cuts deepest. A Rs 6-crore address does not guarantee safe water. It only determines how long you can buy alternatives. Think that’s shocking? Here’s the bigger surprise: Tushar Prasher, who has lived in society for nearly two decades, traced the current phase of the crisis back to the summer of 2025.
Representations were made and fixes were attempted. For a few months, the problem appeared resolved. Then, in December, it returned.
“For over eight to ten weeks now, nothing has worked,” he said. “Cleaning, chemicals, valves, none of it.” The core failure, he believes, is diagnostic.
“They have not identified the source of contamination,” he said. “Without that, resolution is impossible.” Finding worms in water used for drinking, bathing, brushing teeth, he didn’t soften the point.
“It is not good for anybody’s health,” he said.
WALKING OUT OF A SOCIETY THAT LOOKED FINE BUT WAS NOT
As I left the apartment complex, nothing looked broken. The children were playing in parks, cars were silently rolling in... and the security guards were busy noting down the names of the visitors.
From the outside, this society functions. Inside, however, residents plan their days around water, when to store it, when to avoid it, when to buy it.
This is not a freak crisis. It is an annual certainty that authorities have learnt to manage cosmetically rather than solve structurally. And the most alarming part is not the insects in the water. It is how normal all of this has become.
- Ends
Published By:
vaishnavi parashar
Published On:
Feb 6, 2026
