The Time I Realized "Clear" Water Isn’t Always Clean — And What Every Indian Home Should Know
I used to believe that if water looked clean, it was clean. That’s how we did things at home growing up. Someone would pour a glass, check if it was clear, and that was it — straight to drinking. No filters. No checks. Just occasional boiling if someone got sick. But that belief changed for me after a week-long stomach infection during the monsoon, all thanks to a glass of "clear" tap water at a relative’s place.
Turns out, a huge number of Indian households still do the same thing — they judge water quality based on how it looks. It sounds harmless until you realize how wrong it is. One post I saw on LinkedIn really stuck with me:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/askdocdoc_most-indian-households-still-rely-on-visual-activity-7354488220320980994-7WIL
That simple act — relying on visual inspection — has been keeping waterborne diseases alive in Indian homes.
I started digging deeper after my illness. One of the first useful things I found was an infographic on Pinterest that showed how contamination isn’t always visible and listed symptoms to watch for:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/928445279436403177
Then came the wake-up call about purification. I read a personal story on Instagram — a family that had repeated infections until they got rid of their old filter and switched to a modern multi-stage one. It sounded exactly like what my own family needed:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DMh-PFUxi8I/
But even good water goes bad if you store it wrong. I saw a post on Threads pointing out how people keep clean water in dirty containers, or dip cups into them with unwashed hands. Guilty as charged. I had no idea that kind of thing could undo all the benefits of filtration:
https://www.threads.com/@askdocdoc/post/DMh-PEioAzq
The issue goes beyond villages. In Mumbai, a neighborhood saw a spike in illnesses after their water source was switched without proper testing. It was shared on X (Twitter), and it really hit home for me because I’ve always assumed city water was safer:
https://x.com/1881713393369030656/status/1948722444543344781
The good news is that awareness is growing. I came across a community campaign on Facebook that’s educating people on tank cleaning, safe storage, and purification — simple stuff that makes a huge difference:
https://www.facebook.com/122099392514743210/posts/122134520318743210
If you want a step-by-step breakdown on how to protect your household from waterborne diseases, I recommend reading this complete guide by AskDocDoc. It’s practical and easy to follow:
https://askdocdoc.com/articles/756-prevention-of-waterborne-diseases-complete-guide-for-indian-households
We’ve since changed a lot at home — new purifier, regular tank cleaning, and no more dipping hands into storage. Small changes, but the difference in our health has been noticeable.