Residential decentralised wastewater treatment and reuse in Bengaluru

Indian cities are grappling with an ever-growing freshwater demand due to rapid urbanisation and exponential population growth. The treatment of the resultant wastewater has proved equally challenging. A lack of treatment facilities leads to the disposal of partially-treated or untreated wastewater causing surface and groundwater contamination.

According to a Central Pollution Control Board report , nearly 72% of the sewage is left untreated in India.

In most cities, the existing centralised wastewater treatment infrastructure is either non-operational or underutilised due to limited sewerage network access and budget restrictions. Utilities are upgrading the existing centralised infrastructure but cannot keep pace with the current sewage generation rate.

Centralised STPs require an extensive network of sewer lines to collect sewage from buildings in their catchment areas. Most Indian cities need to retrospectively lay out this infrastructure, which requires digging under existing buildings and roads. This is not only inconvenient but
also has huge environmental and economic costs. In order to address this, decentralised sewage management is being promoted in cities.

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