Sun, 27 Sept, 2026, 02:32 am
Reported by Hindustan Times
Years after moving from his hometown in Bihar's Madhubani to Mumbai's slums in search of a better life, a 20-year-old found his community facing another struggle – wastewater pooling around homes and increasing exposure to waterborne diseases such as dengue, malaria and typhoid, conditions that eventually prompted him to explore an innovation aimed at addressing the problem.
Twenty-year-old Piyush Jha has developed a decentralised, modular wastewater treatment system designed to make treatment more practical and affordable, initially targeting the industrial sector – an innovation that has been recognised by the United Nations Development Programme in India through its entrepreneurship programme 'Youth Co:Lab National Innovation Challenge'.
Speaking to PTI on the occasion of World Rivers Day, Jha said his innovation seeks to address one of the major sources of pollution in India's water bodies – the discharge of untreated industrial wastewater.
He estimated that nearly 18,000 million litres of wastewater are discharged every day, of which only 20 to 30 per cent is treated.
We don't require any chemical dosing to treat wastewater, nor do we require heavy civil infrastructure. The current water treatment plants require heavy civil infrastructure just to get started, which is a major concern for manufacturing and processing plants in India," he said.
