India, March 2 -- Gurugram continues to make headlines for its exploding urban growth, rising skyline and elevated high-speed corridors, but a short drive away, its industrial township - Manesar - grapples with civic neglect that demands urgent administrative intervention.

During my recent assignment to report on open wastewater dumping near residential towers, I saw multiple systemic failures unfolding in a loop. Starting with unkept sewage treatment plants at residences to limited capacity infra to dispose of treated wastewater, inviting informal tanker operators to quietly flourish by emptying the domestic discharge loads into the mother earth.

Nestled in the lower Aravalli Ranges and situated along the Delhi-Gurugram (NH-48) Express...