India Water and Wastewater Report

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Egbert Watts
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1 India Water and Wastewater Report Industry Report

India Water and Wastewater Overview Water and wastewater management in India has emerged as an issue relatively recent priority at the national, state, and local government level.

2 India Water and Wastewater Overview Water and wastewater management in India has emerged as an issue relatively recent priority at the national, state, and local government level. Historically, urban wastewater has been allowed to flow untreated into the ground as well as into water bodies such as major rivers and lakes. The result has been wholescale pollution of major rivers such as the Ganga and the Yamuna. Most of the sewage is generated by India s 950-odd cities. The total number of sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the country can treat just up to a third of the total sewage generated. The remaining sewage simply flows into water bodies or into the ground without any treatment. Rural India (outside of metro areas, Class 1 cities, and Class II towns) figures are notoriously unreliable. Ahmedabad Surat Mumbai Pune Jaipur Bangalore Kochin Thiruvananthapuram New Delhi Kanpur Bhopal Nagpur Lucknow Hyderabad Visakhapatnam Channai India's municipal solid waste Cities visited 1000 to 9786 TPD 500 to 1000 TPD 150 to 500 TPD 100 to 150 TPD Kolkata Source: WTERT, Columbia University 2

3 Apart from this, of the about 13,500 MLD of wastewater generated by industries, only 60% of it is treated, most of them by large-scale industries. Rapid urbanization will triple this to more than 120,000 MLD by Current data India s rapid urbanization will result in a tripling of sewage generation by 2050, to more than 120,000 MLD, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Table 1 Sewage and sewage treatment status in Indian cities Metro Cities (pop. >1m) Class I Cities (pop. 100,000-1m) Class II Towns (pop. 50, ,000) No. of Cities Sewage Generated 15,644 MLD 35,558 MLD 2697 MLD Sewage Treatment Capacity (Installed) Treatment Capacity % of Total Sewage 8040 MLD 11,554 MLD 234 MLD 51% 32% 8% Source: Status of water supply, wastewater generation and treatment in class I cities and class II towns in India, Central Pollution Control Board report,

4 Challenges The challenges facing effective sewage management in India could be grouped into two main types: those arising from a lack of infrastructure and those due to implementation. Infrastructure challenges According to a 2010 report, the effective treatment capacity of the country s STPs was just 19% of total sewage generation, compared to a total installed capacity of 30%. This is due to inadequate infrastructure arising from collecting sewage that can then be treated. Cities and towns do not have proper drainage systems. This means that most sewage is carried through open drains that flow into surface water bodies such as rivers, lakes, or ponds. Alternatively, they stagnate in pools where the sewage seeps into the groundwater table, polluting underground aquifers. Lack of adequate power, skilled personnel, inability of local body governments to afford operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, all these contribute to the gap between installed capacity and effective treatment capacity. Data on sewage treatment does not include sewage generated by informal settlements or illegal colonies that spring up in cities and towns. Water authorities (WAs) seldom have full scale infrastructure in these localities. Therefore, their water requirements are met from other sources tanker water, where water is supplier in tankers at a fixed cost, exploiting ground water using bore wells, illegal connections to existing WA infrastructure etc. This makes planning future projects difficult for urban local bodies (ULBs). 4

5 Legal framework for sewage/wastewater The Indian Government s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is at the apex of all environment-related decision making, of which the CPCB is a part. The Environment (Protection) Act of 1986 covers all issues relating to environmental protection. It provides for audits of all facilities that might require clearances regarding water and air pollution, hazardous waste etc. Under these laws, the CPCB sets pollutant discharge standards while State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) monitor performance and enforce the standards. The CPCB s General Discharge Standards apply to all facilities including STPs. These are comprehensive, with 33 parameters covered under four categories: discharges to inland surface waters, in marine coastal areas, to public sewers, and on land for irrigation. There are separate industry-specific standards catering to 104 industry categories. In short, the CPCB standards document is comprehensive and exhaustive. Implementation challenges SPCBs have been found wanting as regards the implementation of the CPCB s standards. The monitoring and enforcement by the SPCBs is a weak point due to lack of manpower, technical and financial resources. STPs are funded by the Central or State governments; but ULBs and SPCBs are responsible for their operation and adherence to standards. They have been historically reluctant to impose these standards. 5

6 Another important enforcement issue is that of court intervention. Governing bodies usually resort to court rulings to enforce rules, which is usually as a last resort and results in shutting down industries that fall egregiously short of compliance. While this has helped improve effluent treatment by industries, municipal STPs still lag behind. The current enforcement model that prefers drastic action, such as shutting down entities for grave noncompliance, could be counter-productive, according to policy analysts. They have pointed out that the CPCB should use a system of fines or levies based on the extent of non-compliance. They argue that this will act as an incentive for industries to decrease their effluent discharges in a gradual, continuous manner. Closures should be an option reserved for extreme violations. The challenge in this chase is that it requires extensive reorganization and more accurate monitoring systems than there are at present. The most serious challenge in implementation comes from micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). They account for the majority of industrial discharge in India. But these enterprises rarely have the technical and financial clout to implement effective effluent treatment. Solutions Efforts to expand municipal sewage treatment Starting in 1985, the Ganga Action Plan was the central government s first act in acknowledging that cities and towns cannot tackle the sewage problem on their own. The plan used central funds to build STPs along the rivers banks. By 1995, the effort had moved on to other rivers under the National River Conservation Plan 6

7 (NRCP). The NRCP has covered 190 towns in 39 river basins in 20 states till date. Funds to the tune of USD 1.23bn have been sanctioned, of which around USD 770m has been spent. Around 3500 MLD of sewage and wastewater has been tackled as a result. Subsequently, the MoEF also created the National Lake Conservation Plan (NLCP) and the National Wetland Conservation Programme (NWCP). These schemes included creating sewage treatment infrastructure to protect important lakes and wetlands. In 2013, these two were merged into an integrated scheme, the National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NPCA). Efforts to expand MSME effluent treatment For MSME industry clusters, the Indian government has proposed the establishment of Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs). CETPs will allow the cost of effluent treatment to be shared among all the industries in a cluster. The MoEF has further incentivized the program by taking up 75% of the capital cost of the CETP (50% from the central government and 25% from the respective state government). The remaining 25% would be borne by the MSMEs. Results have been encouraging - 88 CETPs with a total capacity of 560 MLD have been set up covering around 10,000 industries. 7

8 Sewage treatment equipment and technologies Activated sludge treatment Aeration tanks Aerobic recirculation Anerobic baffled reactor Blackwater treatment systems Decentralized wastewater treatment systems (DEWATS) Trickling filter Waste stabilizing ponds 8

9 405 VIP Plaza, Off Andheri New Linking Road Andheri West, Mumbai Third Avenue 2nd Floor, New York, NY Office:

WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR GANGA RIVER BASIN COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR GANGA RIVER BASIN COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIA BRIJESH SIKKA Additional Director, Ministry of Environment and Forests, National