It’s official: 2025 is serving us one of the hottest summers India has ever experienced. From Delhi to Gujarat and down to Telangana, temperatures have soared past 47°C. But as we all scramble for shade, ACs, and cold drinks, there’s another crisis brewing that most of us aren’t really talking about.
No, it’s not just about heatstroke or electricity failures.
It’s about water—the one thing we need most in this heat. More specifically, it’s about how this heatwave is quietly breaking the back of our water treatment and supply systems.
Let’s dive into what’s really happening under the surface—and why it should matter to every single one of us.
Water Treatment Plants Are Overloaded—and Overheating
When the mercury rises, the demand for water skyrockets. People are using more for drinking, bathing, cooking, and often even hoarding in fear of cuts. The problem? The supply can’t keep up. Most major cities rely on surface water—rivers, canals, or reservoirs—that are drying up quicker than ever.
In cities like Jaipur and Hyderabad, municipal treatment plants are struggling to maintain pressure as raw water sources drop. They’re working longer hours, with less water, and facing a rise in complaints about water quality.
These plants weren’t built to handle extreme climate like this. Many of them are still operating on outdated tech, minimal automation, and lack the redundancy required to handle sudden spikes in demand.
Hot Weather = Faster Bacterial Growth
Here’s something that makes the situation worse: bacteria love the heat.
As temperatures go up, microbial contamination increases, especially in areas where water is stored in tanks or pipelines exposed to sunlight. This means that even treated water can get recontaminated before it reaches our taps.
And when plants are already stressed, disinfecting water becomes even trickier. It’s like trying to mop up a floor while the tap is still running—it’s a losing battle.
In several parts of eastern India—particularly Bihar, Odisha, and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh—cases of waterborne diseases like diarrhea, gastroenteritis, and typhoid are steadily rising. According to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), over 1,200 such cases were reported in just the first week of June 2025, with most linked to contaminated drinking water and heat-induced dehydration. Public Health Centres in these regions are already witnessing the early impact of unsafe water storage and overwhelmed treatment systems.
The Chemistry of Water Changes with Heat
This is something only a few people know—but it’s huge.
Heat directly alters the chemical composition of raw water.
Here’s how:
- The chemical oxygen demand (COD) in water increases.
- Ammonia levels rise due to decomposing organic matter.
- Industrial runoff reacts differently, causing pH fluctuations.
All of this means that the chemicals typically used in treatment—like chlorine or alum—may no longer work as expected.
Some plants start overdosing chlorine to compensate, which brings its own risks. When chlorine reacts with organic matter in warm water, it can form disinfection byproducts (DBPs)—and those are linked to long-term health issues.
If you’d like a technical look at how water chemistry shifts in high-heat environments, this article by official USGS breaks it down pretty well.
Water Scarcity + Poor Infrastructure = A Dangerous Mix
The worst impact, unsurprisingly, is in rural and semi-urban areas. In districts across Maharashtra, Bihar, and even parts of Karnataka, families are reportedly walking over 4–6 kilometers a day to fetch water. In some areas, only a single tanker comes every two days, and that too with unfiltered water.
There’s no time to treat it. People drink it directly. And the risk of contamination? Extremely high.
Open wells and borewells are also drying out faster than expected. And in many villages, water from these sources is stored in buckets or pots left under the open sky, making it the perfect breeding ground for bacteria.
Is Anyone Doing Anything About It?
Yes—but we’ve still got a long way to go.
Some city corporations are now switching to UV filtration and smart chlorination systems that can auto-adjust doses based on temperature and input quality. Others are outsourcing advanced filtration solutions to third-party companies that specialize in high-temperature operation, like Genviss, which offers customizable treatment solutions for industrial and residential applications.
But let’s be real—change is slow, and summer is already here.
So, What Can You Do During a Heatwave?
Honestly, while most of the problem lies in how the system is managed, there are things we can all do to protect ourselves and our families:
- Clean your water storage tanks every 3 weeks. Heat + unclean tanks = instant contamination.
- Don’t drink water that smells funny, even if it looks clear.
- Use a UV+UF filter at home. RO isn’t always enough, especially during a heatwave when microbes multiply faster.
- Store water in shaded areas in closed containers—never leave drinking water out in the open.
- If you’re using borewell or tanker water, get it tested once every few weeks for total dissolved solids and bacteria.
You can also get more info on the real-time water reservoir levels here, which gives you an idea of what’s going.
What Needs to Change—Systematically
Let’s be honest. Heatwaves are here to stay. This is the new normal.
So, instead of treating every summer like an emergency, it’s time to redesign our systems to handle these temperatures year after year.
That means:
- Upgrading treatment plants with AI-driven dosage systems that respond to climate.
- Encouraging cities to set up emergency filtration units near reservoirs and canals.
- Creating localized rainwater harvesting and recharge units that reduce load on central supply.
- Enabling early warning alerts for heat-triggered contamination surges.
And maybe, just maybe, we stop taking clean water for granted.
Because in this heat, it’s more precious than ever.
Final Words
We often think of heatwaves as something that just makes us sweat or crank up the AC. But the truth is, they’re breaking our basic survival systems, one pipeline at a time. And it’s the water—quietly contaminated, increasingly scarce, and dangerously mismanaged—that will hurt us the most if we don’t pay attention.
It’s time we look beyond the thermometer and into the tap. Because when the water starts failing, everything else will follow.