India has the potential to emerge as a global leader in sustainable wastewater management by embracing nature-inspired technologies that cut energy consumption and enable large-scale water reuse, according to an expert who spoke on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions — commonly known as Summer Davos — held in Dalian, China on 24 June. The remarks came from Bharathan, a representative of ECOSTP Technologies, who argued that India's mounting wastewater crisis is, at its core, a technological challenge as much as a governance one.

The Scale of India's Wastewater Crisis

Nearly 80 per cent of India's sewage currently goes untreated, according to Bharathan, resulting in widespread pollution of rivers, lakes, and other water bodies. Conventional sewage treatment infrastructure, he noted, remains prohibitively expensive and energy-intensive for large parts of the country — making it poorly suited to the scale and diversity of India's needs.

This comes amid growing global pressure on nations to address water security as a climate priority. For India, the gap between wastewater generated and wastewater treated represents both an environmental liability and, potentially, an economic opportunity.

How ECOSTP's Biomimicry Solution Works

ECOSTP Technologies has developed a wastewater treatment system inspired by biomimicry — a design approach that replicates natural biological processes. Specifically, the company has engineered a system modelled on the digestive functioning of a cow's stomach, using its four compartments — the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum — as the architectural blueprint for underground treatment chambers.

The gravity-based system uses specially cultivated bacteria housed in these underground chambers to treat sewage naturally, without electricity, chemicals, or mechanical equipment. Developed in collaboration with IIT Jammu, the technology is designed to operate without on-site operators or a continuous power supply, converting raw sewage into reusable clean water.

Bharathan said the company has, to date, treated more than 9 billion litres of wastewater across installations in 24 states in India. The startup has also expanded internationally, with a presence in Bangladesh and the Maldives, and is now entering African markets including Mozambique and Kenya.

Recognition and Policy Backing

ECOSTP Technologies has been recognised under the Startup India initiative and has received appreciation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The company has also been awarded the Most Circular Economy Business Innovator Award for its contribution to sustainable and circular economy practices.

Bharathan emphasised that nature-based solutions are particularly well-suited to Indian conditions and can play a meaningful role in improving water conservation and reducing environmental pollution at scale.

What This Means for India's Water Future

The expert's remarks at Summer Davos signal a growing international interest in India's homegrown environmental innovations. With water stress projected to intensify across South Asia, scalable, low-energy treatment technologies could offer a replicable model not just for India but for water-scarce economies across Africa and Southeast Asia.

Whether ECOSTP's model can be adopted at the municipal and national scale — and integrated into India's broader urban infrastructure plans — will be a key question for policymakers in the months ahead.