International market
2026-10-20Introduction: 2026年10月3日, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO) under India's Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs signed the Record of Discussions for the "Project for Capacity Development for Treated Water Recycling" in New Delhi, launching a three-year technical cooperation. The project will develop India's first national treated water reuse manual, while India's policy targets under the AMRUT 2.0 framework are: 20% of urban water demand and 40% of industrial water demand to be supplied by reclaimed water.
Why an agreement with no construction volume matters
The most distinctive feature of this Record of Discussions is that it contains no construction content for wastewater treatment plants and discloses no equipment procurement budget. What it buys is "capacity": a national manual, a cohort of trained local officials, and recommendations for improving the policy and implementation framework.
For companies accustomed to judging market opportunities by "project value," such agreements are easily overlooked. But from the perspective of industrial evolution, it is precisely the precondition for subsequent large-scale engineering tenders. For a country's reclaimed water market to truly open up, it typically goes through three steps: first standards and manuals (clarifying what water can be used in what scenarios), then regulation and assessment (clarifying who is responsible and how penalties are applied), and finally engineering and equipment procurement. What India is doing now is the first step.
The agreement was signed by CPHEEO Advisor V.K. Chaurasia and JICA India Office Chief Representative Takuro Takeuchi, witnessed by a representative of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, India. The signing level indicates that this is not a technical exchange, but an institutional arrangement incorporated into the bilateral government cooperation framework.
Project content: six application scenarios, four dimensions
According to the project description published by JICA, the main activities of the three-year technical cooperation include:
- Developing a national manual — covering the four dimensions of treated water reuse: technical, institutional, financial, and operational, providing local authorities with actionable implementation guidance;
- Capacity building and training — systematic training for Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and Municipal Corporations (MCs), addressing the common problem of "standards exist but no one knows how to implement them";
- Technology dissemination — promoting best practices and emerging technologies for treated water reuse;
- Policy recommendations — proposing specific recommendations for improving the policy and implementation framework, paving the way for subsequent legislation and regulatory amendments.
The application scenarios covered by the manual are explicitly divided into six categories: industrial reuse, agricultural reuse, municipal miscellaneous use, ecological replenishment, groundwater recharge, and Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR). The length of this list is noteworthy — it shows that India's goal is not a "landscape replenishment" demonstration project, but to establish a complete reuse system differentiated by scenario, water quality, and responsibility. The more scenarios, the higher the requirements for water quality grading and dual-pipe distribution systems, and the thicker the corresponding technology and equipment market.
India's water pressure: why reuse is the only path
The drivers behind India's push for reclaimed water are highly similar to those in North and Northwest China: demand is rising, water sources are shrinking.
The triple overlay of rapid urbanization, population growth, and manufacturing expansion continues to put pressure on India's available water resources. Water-intensive industries such as textile printing and dyeing, chemicals, electronics manufacturing, and metal surface treatment consume large amounts of freshwater in processing, rinsing, cooling, and equipment cleaning; meanwhile, urban populations and industrial projects compete for the same water sources. Under these circumstances, returning compliant tailwater to production and municipal use is the only way to expand water supply without increasing water withdrawal.
The policy vehicle is AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) and its 2.0 phase. Under this framework, India encourages states to achieve two targets: 20% of urban water demand and 40% of industrial water demand to be met by reclaimed water. It should be noted that these two figures are currently policy guidance targets rather than legally binding requirements uniformly applicable to every industrial enterprise — but the direction is already very clear.
Alongside this is the "used water" management approach under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) framework. According to India's DD News, SBM 2.0 has approved 1178.5亿 rupees for the construction of sewage treatment plants in small cities, with an expected additional treatment capacity of 4900 MLD (approximately 490万 cubic meters/day). Treatment capacity is the prerequisite for reuse—without sufficient secondary effluent, reclaimed water is water without a source.
Why "standards first, engineering second" is the smarter sequence
India has chosen to first develop manuals and build capacity rather than proceeding directly to large-scale tendering, and this sequence is actually advantageous for suppliers.
Most failed reclaimed water projects fail not on technology but on the demand side not being secured: the plant gets built, but no enterprise is willing to sign a reuse agreement; or an agreement is signed, but the water quality requirements do not match the process capability. By defining through a national manual "what water quality can be used for what scenario" upfront, India is in effect pre-resolving the demand-side negotiation costs for future projects. Once the manual is published, industrial parks will have a unified language when applying for projects, and equipment selection will have a comparable technical baseline.
For Chinese companies, this means two things. First, the window is now: the manual drafting stage is the best point of entry for exporting technical solutions, case studies, and standards; once the manual is finalized, the technical route is essentially locked in. Second, the dimension of competition is standards, not price: under the manual framework, suppliers that can provide a complete capability set of "fit-for-purpose water supply solutions + online water quality monitoring + operational data records" have an advantage over equipment vendors that simply quote low prices.
Regional landscape: Japan does institutions, China does engineering
Broadening the view to all of South Asia and the Middle East reveals a division of labor that is taking shape.
What Japan exports through technical cooperation such as JICA is institutions, standards, and talent training—such inputs have long cycles and do not generate equipment orders in the short term, but they determine the technical language of subsequent projects. On the engineering and operations side, Chinese companies are rapidly moving in: 2026年, a consortium led by China Everbright Water won the Package 10 and Package 11 of the long-term municipal sewage operation contract of Saudi National Water Company; in the same period, a joint venture between Veolia and Oman's Bawan Engineering signed a five-year O&M contract for the Al-Asilah seawater desalination plant in Oman (daily capacity 8万 cubic meters, serving approximately 60万 residents); the plant adopts a BOO model, with an on-site photovoltaic power station supporting low-carbon water production.
These two types of signals, taken together, indicate that the water markets of the Middle East and South Asia are shifting from "one-off equipment sales" to "long-term operation + institutional export." There are many companies that can do engineering; there are few that can shoulder operational-phase responsibility and clearly explain data in accordance with local standards.
Conclusion
An agreement with no engineering volume often says more about the direction of the market than a contract with engineering volume. India is spending three years first writing clearly "how water can be used," and only then will come the procurement of pipe networks, plants, and equipment. For Chinese water treatment enterprises, the entry point to this market is not in the tender announcements but in that yet-to-be-published national manual—whoever can enter the manual's technical reference framework gets the ticket to subsequent orders.
About TIANYI TECH: TIANYI TECH (TIANYI LIMITED) focuses on the fields of wastewater treatment, reclaimed water reuse, and water environment governance, providing municipal and industrial clients with full-chain services including process design, equipment integration, engineering general contracting, and smart operations. The company continuously tracks global water treatment policies, technologies, and market dynamics, and is committed to helping customers achieve efficient utilization and sustainable management of water resources with reliable solutions. For more information, please visit the company website www.tianyitech.hk.
Sources: Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), "Signing of Record of Discussions for 'Project for Capacity Building on Circular Use of Treated Wastewater'" (2026年10月3日, New Delhi); India DD News report on reclaimed water utilization under the SBM-U framework (2026年10月1日); official announcements of China Everbright Water Group; MEED report on the O&M contract for the Al-Asilah seawater desalination plant in Oman (2026年10月19日).
