Infrastructure development suffered a big blow during the pandemic due to the halt in construction. Among the worst hit sectors were urban water supply, and sewage and wastewater management systems.
Even prior to the pandemic, the water sector suffered from critical constraints. Rapid urbanisation and industrialisation has led to a huge rise in demand for water, as well as a need to deal with larger quantities of sewage and wastewater.
Urban local bodies (ULBs) lack sufficient capacity to service these needs. Moreover, they suffer large water losses due to leakage, theft and inadequate billing. Primary freshwater sources are also under pressure, and need management and augmentation to meet the current and future demand. At the same time, most municipal bodies have not succeeded in metering and billing customers for the water they consume. This leads to financial constraints, hindering new investment.
Evidently, the sector needs transformation and policymakers must deal with this on priority basis. Enormous capacity creation is required in water supply as well as sewage treatment and disposal. There is also a need for augmentation and management of primary water sources – and the development of new water sources – via desalination, recycling, etc.
The sector also needs to be put on a firm financial footing, which means better metering and the reduction of non-revenue-water (NRW), that is, unbilled or lost litres. Over and above all of this, there is a need for a change in mindset and a shift in focus to offering better services, such as 24×7 supply.
Apart from local initiatives, there are central schemes. The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, the Smart Cities Mission and the Jal Jeevan Mission together aim to ensure that water supply is functional, water quality is maintained, 100 per cent metering is achieved and new sources are developed.
The National Water Mission looks at areas that are vulnerable to climate change, and areas where water resources are declining. The mission aims to develop desalination capacity – including the development of technologies such as low-temperature desalination, reverse osmosis and multistage flash distillation – using low-grade or waste heat energy from coastal power plants or renewable energy. The Ministry of Earth Sciences also runs schemes focused on sustainable, efficient use of ocean resources.
Many municipalities are now embracing the 24×7 concept. They are also focussed on reducing NRW levels from the current unacceptable levels of over 50 per cent. The target is to bring down NRW to below 20 per cent.
While there are obviously enormous challenges, there are also large opportunities. This process will lead to a large quanta of construction, and require the tricky integration of town planning with civil engineering as water and sewage grids are renewed and expanded. The grids will also have to be smart, monitoring and metering water and sewage flows. New technologies will be required for water harvesting, desalination and treatment of wastewater. Better billing systems are also required.
The Centre has also announced financial assistance packages to help ULBs. The Ministry of Finance has released Rs 118.30 billion to states. The National Mission for Clean Ganga is also developing a circular model of reclaiming, reusing and recycling water. The government is seeking ways to monetise treated sewage water, such as selling it to power plants.
The challenges of managing water supply and sewage disposal will grow as development continues, since urbanisation and industrialisation are both associated with higher demand. Moreover, climate change will present its own challenges. Dealing with this satisfactorily and sustainably will require consistent and sensible policies, but it will present many investment opportunities.