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India’s Water Crisis and the Role of Wastewater Reuse
Context
A report titled “Waste to Worth: Managing India’s Urban Water Crisis Through Wastewater Reuse”, published by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), highlights the urgent need to reuse treated wastewater as a solution to India’s increasing water scarcity and environmental pollution.
India’s Growing Water Scarcity
- Water Stress: India ranks 132nd in global per capita water availability and is already a water-stressed nation (below 1,700 cubic meters per capita per year).
- Declining Freshwater Resources: Per capita surface water availability has dropped 73% since 1950 (from 5,200 m³ in 1951 to 1,486 m³ in 2021).
- Projected Crisis: If no action is taken, India could soon become “water scarce” (below 1,000 m³ per capita).
- High Demand, Limited Resources: India has 2% of the Earth’s landmass but only 4% of global freshwater resources, yet it supports 18% of the world’s population and 15% of its livestock.
The Wastewater Crisis in Urban India
- Sewage Generation: In 2020-21, urban India generated 72,368 million litres per day (MLD) of sewage.
- Insufficient Treatment Capacity: Only 44% (31,841 MLD) of sewage had treatment capacity, and only 28% (20,236 MLD) was actually treated.
- Future Projections: Wastewater generation is expected to increase by 75-80% in the next 25 years, reaching 48 billion cubic meters annually by 2050, 5 times the existing treatment capacity.
- Environmental Impact: 72% of sewage remains untreated, polluting water bodies and land.
Water Governance and Policy Gaps
- Urban Dependence on Distant Water Sources: Cities like Bengaluru (Cauvery) and Hyderabad (Krishna, Godavari) rely on distant rivers, increasing costs and causing shortages in peripheral areas.
- Poor Water Management Scores: The NITI Aayog Composite Water Management Index shows that 16 states score below 50/100, indicating poor performance.
- Unstructured Wastewater Reuse: Though wastewater is informally reused in agriculture and industry, structured policies are lacking.
- Rural-Urban Water Shift: Large irrigation projects, such as the Narmada Project (Gujarat) and Bisalpur Project (Rajasthan), are being repurposed for urban water supply, reducing water availability for agriculture.
- Government Targets: The Union Ministry of Jal Shakti mandates cities to reuse at least 20% of treated wastewater, but compliance remains low.
What is Water Circularity?
- Water circularity refers to recycling, reusing, and recovering water within the treatment cycle to maximize its value while minimizing waste and pollution.
- · Benefits of Water Circularity in India
- Industrial Water Savings: Using treated wastewater can reduce costs for power plants and data centers, replacing freshwater for cooling.
- Irrigation Boost: India generates 317 km³ of municipal wastewater annually, which could irrigate 40 million hectares (10% of all irrigated land).
- Economic Benefits: Recycling wastewater in thermal power plants could save 10 million cubic meters of water annually, generating $300 million per year.
- Nutrient Recovery: India’s Class I and II cities generate 2,500 tonnes of nutrients daily from 6,400 MLD sewage water, valued at ?19.5 million. Recovering nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus can enhance soil health and reduce reliance on synthetic fertilizers.
- Artificial Groundwater Recharge: Treated sewage can replenish depleted aquifers, improving long-term water security.
- Renewable Energy Generation: Extracting biogas from wastewater can power treatment plants, while algal biofuel production (3G ethanol) can support India’s climate goals.
PYQQ. Which one of the following ancient towns is well known for its elaborate system of water harvesting and management by building a series of dams and channelizing water into connected reservoirs? (2021)
Solution: (a) Q.2. With reference to ‘Water Credit’, consider the following statements: (2021)
Which of the statements given above are correct?
Solution: (c) |
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