Surat, Bengaluru tops Municipal Used Water Management Index

Bengaluru, Karnataka: The Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW) has published a study titled ‘Enabling Circular Economy in Used Water Management in India – A Municipal Index for Assessing Urban Local Bodies’ Performance’ where performance of 503 civic bodies of 10 states has been assessed. Bengaluru and Surat in Gujarat have topped the index as these cities have formulated dedicated action plans for wastewater management at the ULB level.

The study assessed the performance of the urban local bodies based on five key themes— finance, infrastructure, efficiency, governance and data and information. These five themes further branched into 25 parameters and 27 indicators.

The performance of 503 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) from class I (population above 1,00,000) and class II (population of 50,000–99,999) cities of 10 states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, and West Bengal, has been assessed based on the stated themes. Assessed ULBs were selected as only these states and ULBs have adopted and implemented the treated used water reuse policies. 

Based on composite scores attained by the civic bodies under the stated parameters, states have been ranked and ULBs have been classified into ‘Aspiring’, ‘Promising’, ‘Performing’, ‘Leading’, and ‘Outstanding’ categories, from the lowest to highest scores.

In the state rankings, Haryana, Karnataka, and Punjab have secured the top three spots with a score of 1.94, 1.74 and 1.71, respectively. The remaining states— Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh have secured the spot in the same order they are mentioned. 

Out of the total 503 ULBs assessed under the study, 39 (8 per cent) have been classified into the ‘aspiring’ category with a score of 0-0.75 range, 264 ULBs (52 per cent) have made it into the ‘promising’ category with a range score of 0.75 to 1.5, 151 ULBs (30 per cent) are in the ‘performing’ category with a range score of 1.5-2.25, 47 ULBs (9 per cent) are in ‘leading’ category with a range score of 2.25 to 3 and only two ULBs (1 per cent) have scored higher than 3, thereby finding their place in ‘outstanding’ category.  

If we break it down to the thematic level, 392 ULBs (78 per cent) have been placed into the ‘promising’ category in terms of ‘governance’. In the ‘data and information’ vertical, 246 ULBs (49 per cent) are put into the ‘promising’ category. Similarly, 230 ULBs (46 per cent) are collectively put into the ‘performing’ and ‘leading’ categories under the infrastructure theme. Under the ‘efficiency’ theme, 295 ULBs (60 per cent) are in the ‘aspiring’ category. Lastly, 449 (90 per cent) assessed ULBs are collectively put into ‘aspiring’ and ‘promising’ categories under the ‘finance’ vertical. 

The report has been prepared based on the national-level sewage inventory data published by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 2021 and other government and non-government sources. CEEW’s study highlights that as of 2021, Indian cities generated over 72,000 million litres of used water (domestic sewage) per day, of which only 28 per cent of wastewater was treated. The untreated wastewater that was left goes into natural water bodies. Untreated wastewater discharge is the primary cause of high pollution levels in the Indian rivers. Pollution load is concentrated in areas where the river passes through urban centres. The report read, “Used water, with safe treatment and reuse, is a highly valuable resource. CEEW estimates suggest that by 2050, over 96,000 million litres per day of treated used water (TUW) will be available for reuse in India.”

Based on their scores, the ranking of the top 20 urban local bodies is as follows:

Rank	Cities	Composite Score (0-5)	Governance (0-7)	Efficiency (0-6)	Infrastructure (0-6)	Data & Information (0-3)	Finance (0-3)
1	Surat	3.32	4.25	3.85	4.94	1.13	2.46
2	BBMP	3.23	4	4.88	3.85	1.39	2.04
3	Mysore	2.9	4	3.52	4.62	1.11	1.27
4	Rohtak	2.84	2.5	4.08	4.4	1.57	1.64
5	Vadodara	2.81	2.25	3.4	4.36	1.64	2.4
6	Rajkot	2.77	2.75	3.49	3.5	2.15	1.95
7	Gurugram	2.77	2.5	4.26	3.98	1.39	1.7
8	Panchkula	2.75	1.9	4.38	4.54	0.9	2.05
9	Jamnagar	2.75	3.25	4.29	4.52	0.53	1.18
10	Bahadurgarh	2.71	2.5	3.94	3.95	1.51	1.65
11	Sonipat	2.71	2.5	3.92	3.86	1.65	1.62
12	Jaipur	2.71	4.56	3.02	3.02	1.84	1.09
13	Kolar	2.67	2.36	5.01	4.19	0.61	1.19
14	Udaipur	2.65	3.75	4.49	2.95	1.32	0.71
15	Karnal	2.64	2.62	3.97	4.19	1.4	1.03
16	Kolkata	2.64	2.75	3.11	4.34	1.36	1.64
17	Patiala	2.62	2.6	3.93	2.81	1.57	2.21
18	Bhiwani	2.62	2.5	4.14	4.35	1.07	1.04
19	Palwal	2.59	2.5	4.08	3.83	1.15	1.4
20	Faridabad	2.58	2.5	3.71	3.68	1.64	1.37