Chakraborty, et. al.
Table 3: Existing status of wastewater in 6 major cities in India in 2003
Wastewater (MLD)
Total
Name
Sl.
popula-
of the
No.
tion
city
(Million)
2456.0
246.0
2210.0
1.
Mumbai
16.36
109.0
Sea
(100)
(10.02)
(89.98)
1432.2
357.3
1074.9
River,
2.
Kolkata
12.79
1411.0
(100)
(24.95)
(75.05)
Wetlands
1270.0
254.0
1016.0
3.
Delhi
9.81
981.0
Agriculture
(100)
(20.0)
(80.0)
276.0
19.0
257.0
4.
Chennai
6.42
257.0
Agriculture
(100)
(6.89)
(93.11)
5434.2
876.3
4557.9
Total
2758
(100)
(16.12)
(83.88)
Figures in the parentheses indicate percent over total
Source: cpcb.nic.in
Indian cities generally do not have necessary resources to treat wastewater before
disposal. Institutional as well as legislative support for pollution control are
available but still in vogue. Even where expensive wastewater treatment plants
are installed, only a small percentage of the volume of total wastewater is treated
before discharge which results in contamination of rivers, lakes and aquifers. In
reality, the treatment of wastewater is still very low in India (only 22.72%) (cpcb.
nic.in). In practice, Indian cities have adopted conventional wastewater treatment
plant over the last fifty years. These plants have performed poorly with frequent
breakdowns, and they usually turned up into abandoned projects. Some of the
reasons behind this failure are improper operation and maintenance, and also
the shortage of municipal funds to meet the high operational cost for such plants
(Ballou, 2002).
On the other hand, it has been found that wastewater has high potential for reuse
in agriculture; an opportunity for increasing food and environmental security,
avoiding direct pollution of rivers, canals and surface water; conserving water
and nutrients, thereby reducing the need for chemical fertilizer; and disposing of
municipal wastewater in a low-cost, sanitary way (Tandon et al. , 2003). With a
little effort at upgrading the existing disposal system, the task of turning municipal
sanitation into a revenue-earning project can be achieved in India. The local people
of Kolkata have developed similar resource recovery system from wastewater since
1930 at the wetlands situated mainly in eastern part of Kolkata commonly known
as East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW). They have been using city wastewater for the
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