Over the past few decades, India has been witnessing exceptional economic growthleading to intensive and unplanned urbanization of the country. As per 2011 census, 31.2% of national population dwells in urban centres . This puts severe pressure on urban local bodies to provide basic sanitation services (access to clean water, toilet, medical facilities, transportation and adequate & affordable housing) to all.

Further, the unscientific and inadequate disposal/ treatment of generated wastewater, human excreta and solid waste contaminate various environmental compartments, opens up transmission windows of various water and vector borne diseases, and consequently affects the health of the all dwellers. The poor service delivery, ineffective management of wastes coupled with poor sanitation and unhygienic practices exposes the vulnerable sections of population (urban poor, elderly citizen, women, and children) to multiplied health risks.

As per CPCB (2017), the disposal of domestic sewage from cities is increasing, where Class I and Class II generate an estimated 29129 MLD sewage (as per population in 2001 census). Against this, installed sewage treatment capacity is only 6190 MLD. There remains a gap of 22939 MLD between sewage generation and installed sewage treatment capacity. In percentage this gap is 78.7 %. Another 1742.6 MLD sewage treatment capacity is under planning or construction stage. If this is also added to existing capacity, even then there is a gap of 21196 MLD (equal to 72.7 %) in sewage treatment capacity.

For more information on the current status of sanitation in India