Industry News
2026-10-12The Indian central government has approved a sewage treatment plant (STP) project package totaling ₹11785亿 crore (₹11,785 crore), dedicated to the construction of sewage treatment facilities in small cities, expected to add 4900 MLD (approximately 490万 cubic meters/day) of municipal sewage treatment capacity. The project package is being advanced under the framework of the "Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0" (SBM-U 2.0), with the core concept of redefining municipal sewage from "waste to be disposed of" to "a reusable water resource."
I. ₹11785亿 crore directed to small cities: filling the gap "beyond big cities"
According to a special report published by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) on 2026年 9月 30日, India has approved small-city sewage treatment projects totaling ₹11785亿 crore under the framework of the "Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0," adding a combined 4900 MLD of municipal sewage treatment capacity.
Unlike previous efforts focused on metropolises, this round of investment explicitly places its focus on small cities. For a long time, India's sewage treatment capacity has been highly concentrated in a handful of large cities, while small towns—numerous and widespread—generally face problems such as incomplete collection networks, insufficient treatment facilities, and weak operation and maintenance capabilities. The implementation of this project package means that the focus of India's water environment governance is shifting toward the "underserved market."
In terms of design philosophy, "Used Water Management" (UWM) is placed at the center of the mission. The official statement explicitly points out: "With the right systems, used water can be collected, treated, recycled, and put back into productive use." This statement marks a fundamental shift in India's approach to municipal sewage management—from "discharge it" to "use it."
II. Three institutional tools: certification, protocols, and city-level reuse planning
According to the PIB report, the used water management system revolves around three core institutional tools:
- Water Plus Certification—a tiered certification of a city's reclaimed water utilization level, forming a comparable and benchmarkable evaluation system that provides local governments with clear improvement targets.
- ODF++ Protocol—management standards for fecal sludge and septic tank desludging, incorporating the outputs of decentralized sanitation facilities into formal collection and treatment systems to reduce direct discharge at the source.
- City-level reuse planning—prepared by Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), specifying the destination, scale, and transmission and distribution plans for reclaimed water, turning "reuse" from a slogan into an executable engineering checklist.
The combination of these three tools effectively constitutes a complete policy chain: first standards (certification), then collection (protocols), and finally destinations (planning). For water companies hoping to enter the Indian market, understanding this chain is more important than understanding the bidding conditions of any single project.
III. Four sample cities: from 215 MLD to 200 km of reuse pipelines
Jaipur: Largest in Rajasthan, SBR + full-process SCADA
The Dehlawas Sewage Treatment Plant in Jaipur was completed between 2020 and 2023年, covering an area of 22.50 hectares. It is the largest sewage treatment plant in Rajasthan, with a treatment capacity of 215 MLD. The plant adopts the Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) process and is equipped with a complete SCADA automation system. Part of its treated effluent is discharged into the Dravyavati River, while the other part is conveyed to nearby communities for landscape irrigation.
Indore: India's first "Water+" certified city
Indore is India's first city to obtain Water Plus certification. Its configuration includes 3 centralized sewage treatment plants + 7 decentralized sewage treatment facilities, as well as more than 200 kilometers of reclaimed water reuse pipelines. In addition, the city installed 12.5万 units of rainwater harvesting devices within four months in 2022年.
This "centralized + decentralized" dual-track configuration is especially valuable as a reference for small cities: in areas where pipeline network construction cannot be completed in one step, decentralized facilities can first solve the treatment problem, and reuse pipelines can then gradually connect them into a system.
Surat and Navi Mumbai: cities where the economics of reuse have been proven
Surat and Navi Mumbai are also listed as model operating cities, with their reclaimed water systematically conveyed to scenarios such as horticultural irrigation, industrial production, road washing, and lake replenishment. The PIB report notes that Surat has developed a mature model for the economic viability of reclaimed water reuse.
IV. Market insights: the window for Chinese environmental equipment going global is opening
This round of investment in India is not an isolated case. Looking globally, since the third quarter of 2026年, many Southeast Asian countries have launched national green transition plans, the construction of the Middle East hydrogen energy corridor has entered a substantive procurement phase, and urban wastewater reclamation system upgrades in Latin America have been intensively approved. The total volume of environmental protection projects under construction and planned globally has risen significantly year-on-year.
For Chinese environmental protection enterprises, opportunities in overseas markets genuinely exist, but the playbook has changed. Industry feedback generally indicates that overseas environmental projects are shifting from single engineering delivery to long-term value co-creation involving sovereign funds, development finance institutions, local utility companies, and industrial capital. For a typical wastewater treatment plant project, the cycle from feasibility study to equipment selection, technical due diligence, localization certification, and O&M cooperation has generally been extended to 24—36 months.
This means the traditional model of relying on tender announcements for customer acquisition is becoming ineffective. Enterprises need to plan ahead at three levels:
- Front-end engagement — shifting from "responding to tenders" to "planning involvement," establishing a presence during policy windows, technical solution comparison periods, and core design institute shortlisting periods.
- Localization adaptation — iterating products for different countries' water quality characteristics, climate conditions, and discharge standards, such as modular, corrosion-resistant, and easy-to-maintain equipment for Southeast Asia's high-temperature and high-humidity environments.
- Standards and certification — turning product standards, test reports, and operational cases into verifiable assets to reduce the time costs brought by local compliance barriers.
Some enterprises have already made progress along this path. For example, Hunan Fulaiming Energy-Saving and Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. recently signed a contract for a comprehensive medical wastewater treatment project in Vietnam's Red River Delta, securing nearly 2000万 yuan in equipment supply orders. Dozens of sets of modular underground integrated wastewater treatment equipment are about to be exported, with effluent stably meeting Vietnam's medical wastewater discharge standards.
Industry observers believe that as water investment in markets such as India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East enters a scaling-up phase, the export window for Chinese environmental equipment and solutions has opened. What truly determines success is whether the engineering experience accumulated domestically can be transformed into standardized products and systemic capabilities that are localizable, replicable, and operable.
TIANYI TECH (TIANYI LIMITED) is rooted in the core business of wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse, with one-stop service capabilities spanning solution design, equipment manufacturing, engineering construction, and project operation. The company provides modular, skid-mounted, and easily deployable complete equipment for wastewater treatment and reclaimed water utilization to overseas markets, and can customize and iterate according to different countries' and regions' water quality conditions, climate characteristics, and discharge standards, helping Chinese environmental technology and equipment go global.
Source: Press Information Bureau (PIB) of India 2026年9月30日 special report, public information on India's "Swachh Bharat Mission — Urban 2.0," and compiled from public reports by domestic industry media.
