India's Sewage Treatment Gap
India's towns and cities produce far more sewage than they can treat. Here is the gap between how much is generated, how much can be treated, and how much actually is — in plain numbers.
72,368
MLD sewage generated
urban India, per day
31,841
MLD installed capacity
44% of generation
~20,236
MLD actually treated
only about 28%
~52,000
MLD left untreated
flows to rivers, land & groundwater
The gap, at a glance
Every bar is scaled against the sewage India generates each day. The distance between the top bar and the bottom bar is the sewage that goes untreated.
Installed capacity can treat only about 44% of what is generated, and because not all plants run or meet standards, only around 28% is actually treated. The rest — roughly 52,000 MLD a day — flows into rivers, lakes, land and groundwater largely untreated.
Why the gap keeps growing
The gap is not closing on its own. Between 2022 and 2024, sewage generation rose faster than new treatment capacity was added, so the shortfall widened rather than shrank. Two things follow from that:
- Untreated sewage is a leading cause of river and lake pollution and of groundwater contamination — the same water many towns and industries depend on.
- Closing it needs not just more treatment plants, but plants that actually run reliably and reuse their treated water — which is where decentralised STPs and water reuse come in.
The treated-water quality question is closely tied to groundwater stress: in water-short areas, treating and reusing sewage locally is one of the fastest ways to ease the pressure on aquifers.
States with the most treatment capacity
A handful of states hold most of India's installed sewage treatment capacity — the top five account for around 60% of the national total.
| State / UT | Installed capacity (MLD) | Number of STPs |
|---|---|---|
| Maharashtra | 6,890 | 154 |
| Gujarat | 3,378 | 70 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 3,374 | 107 |
| NCT of Delhi | 2,896 | 38 |
A full, sortable table of all states and Union Territories — sewage generated versus treatment capacity, with an India map — is being added to this page.
Data source & attribution
- Last updated
- CPCB inventory, 2021
National figures are from CPCB's National Inventory of Sewage Treatment Plants (2021), the most recent comprehensive national inventory. 'Actually treated' reflects the volume treated in practice, which is lower than installed capacity because not all plants are operational or meeting standards. Figures cover urban sewage.
Planning an STP or water-reuse system?
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