Parliament Question: Sewage generation and treatment capacity in urban areas

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2599 ANSWERED ON 16/03/2026 SEWAGE GENERATION AND TREATMENT CAPACITY IN URBAN AREAS NO. 2599. SMT. JEBI MATHER HISHAM: Will the Minister of HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS be pleased to state: (a) the details of sewage generation, installed capacity, actual treatment and treatment gap in urban areas State/UT-wise; (b) the details of the Central Government funds allocated, released to States/UTs, utilised and unspent for sewage treatment during the last five years year-wise; (c) whether any assessment has quantified the public health and economic burden from untreated wastewater the details thereof; (d) whether any corpus fund exists to support financially constrained urban local bodies, particularly smaller cities, in establishing and operating sewage treatment plants, details thereof, if not, by when it will be instituted; and (e) the status of private participation in sewage treatment infrastructure and measures to address limited investment? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS (SHRI TOKHAN SAHU) (a): Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has carried out inventorization of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) during the year 2020 in association with State Pollution Control Boards/Pollution Control Committees and Local Bodies and compiled the findings in report titled “National Inventory of Sewage Treatment Plants in India”. As per the report, total 72,368 Million Litres per Day (MLD) of sewage generation was in the country. Sewage Generation is estimated based on water supply @ 185 litre per capita per day (lpcd) and rate of sewage generation as 80%. As per the information updated by States in City Water Balance Plans (CWBPs) under AMRUT 2.0 as in the year 2021, 1754 STPs were installed having 36,543.2 MLD designed capacity and 28,304.45 operational capacity. State/UT-wise details of no. of STPs, their design and operational capacities is given in Annexure. (b) to (e): Sanitation is State subject. Government of India supplements the efforts of the States through schematic interventions/ advisories. It provides financial and technical support to the States through various schemes/ Missions such as Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and AMRUT 2.0 for augmentation of basic infrastructure including sewerage/ septage management sector in urban areas. ...2/--2- Under AMRUT/ AMRUT 2.0, States/Union Territories (UTs) are empowered to select, appraise, prioritise and implement the projects within the broad framework of Mission guidelines. Further, under the Missions, Central Assistance is released/sanctioned to the States/ UTs and not sector-wise or project-wise. Under AMRUT, States/ UTs have taken up 889 sewerage / septage management projects worth ₹34,471.1 crore of which works worth ₹33428.48 crore have been physically completed and expenditure of ₹30763.11 crore has been incurred. Under AMRUT 2.0, the State Water Action Plans (SWAPs) comprising of 584 sewerage/ septage management projects with a total cost of ₹65,624.98 crore have been approved so far. 477 sewerage/ septage management projects worth ₹39,833.56 crore (capex) have been awarded by the States/ UTs of which works worth ₹15,073.66 crore have been physically completed and expenditure of ₹11,615.42 crore have been incurred so far. The AMRUT guidelines advocates taking up projects with Operation and Maintenance (O & M) cost for at least five years, funded by way of levy of user charges or other revenue streams. The Mission framework also emphasizes reforms such as levy and collection of user charges, reduction of non-revenue water, reuse and recycling of treated wastewater and improvement in financial management practices to enhance the capacity of ULBs to sustainably operate and maintain assets. Further under AMRUT 2.0 through various reform initiatives such as Jal Hi Amrit and AMRUT Mitra, the Mission is supporting the States/ ULBs in management of Sewage Treatment Plants. Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban (SBM-U) 2.0 launched on 1st, October, 2021 includes a new component ‘Used Water management (UWM)’. Under UWM component, financial assistance is provided to the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) with population less than 1 Lakh for setting up of STPs/ STP-cum-FSTP and laying Interception and Diversion (I&D) structures including provision of pumping stations and pumping main/gravity main upto STP, to ensure that all used water is safely collected, treated and reused to feasible extent. Under the schemes of MoHUA such as Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and AMRUT 2.0, States/ULBs have been encouraged to take up the urban infrastructure projects in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. The Government has approved the scheme of Urban Challenge Fund (UCF) of ₹1 lakh crore to give boost to the Urban Infrastructure sector including water and sanitation sector. This fund finances up to 25 per cent of the cost of bankable projects with a stipulation that at least 50 per cent of the cost is funded from bonds, bank loans, and Public Private Partnerships. Further, in order to facilitate access to market finance for smaller ULBs including Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities, a Credit Repayment Guarantee Scheme with a corpus of ₹5,000 crore has been approved for all ULBs of North- eastern & Hilly States/UTs and smaller ULBs (<1,00,000 population) in other States/ UTs. Under this sub scheme, in addition to the Central Assistance for UCF projects, Central guarantee for the loans availed by the ULBs for projects will be provided. The guarantee will be of up to ₹7 crore or 70 per cent of the loan amount (whichever is lower) for first-time loans and ₹7 crore or 50 per cent of the loan amount (whichever is lower) for subsequent loans. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has not conducted any specific study for quantification of the public health and economic burden from untreated wastewater in urban areas. *****ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2599 REGARDING “SEWAGE GENERATION AND TREATMENT CAPACITY IN URBAN AREAS”, DUE FOR ANSWER IN THE RAJYA SABHA ON 16.03.2026. State-wise STP designed capacity and reuse of used water (as per information submitted in city water balance plan by the States/ UTs on AMRUT 2.0 portal as in 2021) (Capacity in MLD) No. of STP Designed STP Operational State STPs Capacity Capacity Andaman And Nicobar Islands 38 0.75 0.55 Andhra Pradesh* 129 703.65 502.35 Arunachal Pradesh 1 3.00 0.00 Assam 1 2.00 2.00 Bihar 19 577.31 231.00 Chandigarh 6 248.18 248.18 Chhattisgarh 35 354.51 293.01 Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu 2 17.21 6.61 Delhi 40 3033.48 2758.19 Goa 8 97.40 29.67 Gujarat 130 5266.30 3693.23 Haryana 156 2068.15 1486.33 Himachal Pradesh 74 185.41 122.23 Jammu and Kashmir 16 129.19 73.64 Jharkhand 12 82.00 50.00 Karnataka 192 2878.04 2390.35 Kerala 18 262.28 185.69 Ladakh 1 3.00 3.00 Lakshadweep 0 0.00 0.00 Madhya Pradesh 78 1315.26 829.61 Maharashtra 203 8005.60 6992.53 Manipur 1 27.00 21.00 Meghalaya 1 0.12 0.00 Mizoram 1 10.00 1.00 Nagaland 2 50.86 0.00 Odisha 25 329.63 138.73 Puducherry 2 51.00 44.19 Punjab 132 2211.05 1909.85 Rajasthan 99 1077.25 891.48 Sikkim 3 21.52 19.52 Tamil Nadu 84 1723.62 932.35 Telangana 37 1131.41 772.33 Tripura 2 18.00 8.40 Uttar Pradesh 116 3742.05 2995.05 Uttarakhand 62 425.03 295.56 West Bengal 28 491.94 376.82 Total 1,754 36,543.2 28,304.45 *As informed by the State as on 27.01.2026