Diarrhoea is rising in Maharashtra. Are poorly built Swachh Bharat Mission toilets responsible?

Earlier this month, Kohinoor Khatik came down with loose motions and bouts of vomiting. The doctor who examined her said she had contracted a water-borne illness.

“People keep falling ill here,” said her husband Jalil Khatik, who spent Rs 800 on medicines for his wife.

Khatik blames the frequent illnesses to the “open drains” and dirt in his neighbourhood in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district.

More specifically, he blames the contaminated water around the community toilet near his house in Amalner town. “Waste overflows every time someone uses the toilet. The septic tank has not even been cleaned once,” Khatik claimed.

As a result, residents in the neighbourhood often suffer from diarrhoea. The frequent health expenses take a toll on his limited income, said Khatik, who runs a small butcher shop.

While Maharashtra recorded a steady decline in diarrhoea cases between 2011 and 2021, there has been a striking reversal in the last three years.

Between 2022 and 2024, the state saw an 80% rise in water-borne illnesses such as cholera, typhoid and gastroenteritis, which are categorised as acute diarrhoeal diseases.

In 2024, 1.95 lakh cases of acute diarrhoeal disease were reported, up from 1.35 lakh cases in 2023 and 1.08 lakh cases in 2022, data from the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme and the state epidemiology...

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