At a time when headlines about Bengaluru’s water crisis have been recurrent, the city was judged second best (among around 500 cities across 10 states) in an assessment of used water management. Surat was the only city that performed better than Bengaluru in the report released by the think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) on Tuesday.

Read here: Surat, Bengaluru lead rankings of used water management: CEEW report

Surat and Bengaluru scored 3.32 and 3.23 out of 5, respectively, in a composite index based on the study’s findings. No other city scored more than 3, with 47 scoring above 2.25 and another 151 scoring between 1.5 and 2.25.

The study ‘Enabling Circular Economy in Used Water Management in India: A Municipal Index for Assessing Urban Local Bodies’ Performance’ by CEEW was based on 27 indicators under 25 parameters across five themes — finance, infrastructure, efficiency, governance, and data and information. The research was limited to Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, and West Bengal —the 10 states that have adopted a treated used water policy for reusing treated household sewage.

The report’s findings are based on the latest national-level sewage inventory data published by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 2021 and other government and non-government sources. Nitin Bassi, one of the co-authors of the study and program lead at CEEW, said that given augmenting sewage handling capacity is a complex and elaborate process, they don’t expect any significant change in capacities since the CPCB data was published.

With rising urban water demand and dwindling groundwater tables, the CEEW study urged urban local bodies (ULBs) nationwide to scale up the treatment and reuse of used water for non-potable purposes like horticulture and industrial usage. Among the significant findings, more than half of 503 cities in 10 states scored between 0.75 and 1.5 out of 5 when assessed on their used water management practices. The study noted that even though these cities have acknowledged used water management as a key focus area, their efforts are “currently scattered, and they require a more holistic approach”.

Bassi said, “Though Karnataka emerges as a frontrunner, it is critical to note that there is a long road to go with no state achieving full scores,” he said. The top two states, Haryana and Karnataka, scored 1.94 and 1.74 respectively. “Only two cities—Surat and Bengaluru—are in the outstanding (above 3) category. Most of the ULBs are in the promising category (0.75-1.5), which means that they hold a lot of potential for improvement going forward,” he said.

Nine of the 20 top-performing cities were from Haryana. Gujarat and Karnataka are the other top-performing states, with four and three cities, respectively, featuring in the top 20 cities. “Karnataka and Haryana have implemented comprehensive graded action plans for used water treatment and reuse. This is evident in their thematic scores and the distribution of ULBs across award categories on the MUWM Index,” the study noted. Another 151 scored between 1.5 and 2.25 in CEEW’s composite score of the municipal used water management (MUWM) index.

S Vishwanath, a Bengaluru-based water expert, is not surprised by the CEEW report’s findings. “Bengaluru has the best water treatment plants and one of the best treatment rates among big cities in the country,” he said.

Currently, the treated sewage of Bengaluru is used to fill lakes within the city and for irrigation purposes in the neighbouring parched districts. He stated that the crisis in Bengaluru is currently in areas with no piped water supply and that they depend on borewells. “Now a shift is being planned on how to reuse some of the treated domestic sewage for the households within the city. The upcoming layouts in the city are being built with the provision of dual piping where reused water can be supplied to households,” he added.

Read here: Behind Bengaluru’s looming water thirst

Nimesh Vashi, an expert in reused water in Surat who works closely with the civic body, said Surat was the first Indian city to realise the commercial value of treated sewage. “Since 2014, the city has been providing water to the textile industry, which is a win-win for both the industries, civic body and the environment. Over the last five years, 115 MLD of water is being supplied to industries that otherwise would have been extracted from borewells,” he said. He added that some of the tertiary treated sewage, which is as good as drinking water standard, is released into the Tapi River.