Flowing smartly

Digitalisation can bridge infrastructure gaps, boost efficiency, and build resilient, sustainable water management systems

- Manish Dhajekar

Could India’s economic growth be threatened by its access to water? The country, home to 18% of the world’s population, only possesses 4% of the world’s freshwater supply.

With India’s demand for water estimated to grow at twice the rate of the available supply, the International Centre for Sustainability believes that lack of access to water could represent a loss of 6% in GDP - reducing farming and industrial output and putting major cities at risk of water scarcity.

But India’s predicament is also a matter of water treatment. The Central Pollution Control Board estimates that India generates about 72 billion litres of sewage each day. Only 37% can be treated with existing infrastructure and less than 30% actually is. The result is that more than half of India’s rivers are polluted and 163 million people still lack safe drinking water.

Twin challenges

The wastewater market, valued at USD 13.1 billion in 2023, is expected to almost double by 2033. Yet investment has not matched the urgency, particularly in smaller cities and peri-urban clusters that lag behind, despite being where most untreated sewage originates.