Water security: India must boost wastewater reuse to tackle insecurity

Given the climate risks, India needs to prepare to deal with them because water stress is only likely to worsen

In an attempt to reduce water waste, the Union government last week proposed regulations to mandate up to 50 per cent wastewater reuse by 2031 for bulk consumers. This is an important step towards mainstreaming the reuse of treated wastewater in the country and must be welcomed in a water-stressed country like India, which houses 18 per cent of the world’s population with only 4 per cent of global water resources. The NITI Aayog’s “Composite Water Management Index Report”, released in 2018, showed approximately 600 million people in the country experienced high to extreme water stress. Additionally,