India’s tertiary wastewater-treatment market grows to Rs 7,013 crore

India’s tertiary wastewater-treatment market is projected to grow from Rs 1,870 crore in FY2026 to Rs 7,013 crore by FY2031, according to Frost & Sullivan analysis in the prospectus. India’s tertiary treatment market is forecast to expand at a stated compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 30.26% as reuse-grade water demand rises.

Why is India’s tertiary treatment market set to expand?

India’s tertiary treatment market is projected to add Rs 5,143 crore in annual market value between FY2026 and FY2031. Tertiary treatment, also called advanced wastewater treatment, is the final processing stage that removes suspended solids, nutrients, pathogens and dissolved contaminants to produce water suitable for specified reuse applications. The FY2031 forecast is 3.75 times the FY2026 market value, indicating that the expected expansion is focused on advanced treatment for reuse.

The market had already risen from Rs 740 crore in FY2021 to Rs 1,870 crore in FY2026. The prospectus states a 30.26% CAGR for FY2026 to FY2031, while the annual increase in the market series rises from Rs 557 crore between FY2025 and FY2026 to Rs 1,266 crore between FY2029 and FY2030. This trajectory depends on projects requiring higher effluent quality for industrial, municipal and non-potable reuse.

What is driving India’s tertiary treatment market growth?

Water scarcity, discharge compliance and demand for replacement water are the stated drivers of India’s tertiary treatment market. Advanced treatment can supply non-potable water for industrial cooling, landscaping, irrigation, toilet flushing, construction and groundwater recharge, reducing withdrawals from freshwater sources. The prospectus identifies urban population growth, industrial expansion, irregular rainfall and declining groundwater as conditions increasing demand for these applications.

The market is also shaped by rules that link treatment quality to end use. The Central Pollution Control Board, State Pollution Control Boards, consent conditions, environmental clearances and National Green Tribunal directions can require higher treatment levels, while zero-liquid-discharge, or ZLD, requirements apply particularly to specified industrial sectors and sensitive receiving environments. Tertiary treatment and ZLD are not universal requirements for every sewage treatment plant, or STP, and effluent treatment plant, or ETP, so demand depends on local conditions, sector obligations and buyer water-quality requirements.

This 30.26% FY2026-to-FY2031 growth forecast differs from a component-led sewage-treatment measure. The prospectus reports an 8.9% CAGR for disc filters from FY2023 to FY2025, and estimates that disc filters account for about 5% to 8% of total STP capital cost. Disc filters remove residual solids, whereas reuse systems can combine filtration with ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and disinfection when an industrial or municipal application requires a higher water standard.

Which technologies and suppliers matter in tertiary treatment?

India’s tertiary treatment market requires technologies selected for the contaminant being removed and the intended end use. Filtration systems, including sand, dual-media and disc filters, target fine suspended solids and turbidity. Ultrafiltration, or UF, and other membrane systems remove solids, bacteria and dissolved organics, while reverse osmosis, or RO, is used after prior treatment to remove dissolved salts, heavy metals and micropollutants for high-purity or ZLD applications.

The commercial opportunity includes upgrades to existing plants and new facilities. In municipal sewage treatment, sequencing batch reactor, or SBR, technology accounted for an estimated 30% to 35% of the existing market but about 60% of incremental treatment capacity added from FY2021 to FY2025. SBR is a biological sewage-treatment process and is distinct from tertiary equipment that polishes treated water for reuse.

SFC Environmental Technologies, referred to as SFC, illustrates that distinction. As of July 31, 2026, SFC had 728 wastewater-treatment-plant installations, more than 80% market share in SBR technology and technology facilitating treatment of 17,511.11 million litres per day. That SBR share measures a wastewater-treatment method, not a share of India’s tertiary treatment market. SFC’s tertiary offering includes C-MEM ultrafiltration membranes manufactured at its Czech facility, an exclusive UF-distribution collaboration in India, and fibre disc filters procured through an exclusive South Korean arrangement.

How do reuse policies turn treated water into demand?

Reuse policies can turn treated water from a disposal output into a defined supply for cities and industry. The National Framework on Safe Reuse of Treated Water, issued in 2021, calls for widespread safe reuse that reduces pressure on scarce freshwater resources and pollution risks. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs service-level benchmarks set a 20% target for sewage reuse and recycling in urban areas, while the 2016 Tariff Policy requires thermal power plants within 50 kilometres of an urban local body STP to use treated urban wastewater.

AMRUT 2.0, the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation programme running from FY2021-22 to FY2025-26, has an indicative outlay of Rs 2.77 lakh crore. It targets recycled water to meet 20% of city water demand and 40% of industrial water demand at the state level. As of 2026, the programme had developed roughly 6,000 million litres per day of sewage-treatment capacity, with 1,210 million litres per day already created and reuse provision for 907 million litres per day of treated sewage.

State policies provide the route from treatment capacity to actual water offtake. Punjab’s 2017 treated-wastewater policy had supported 47 completed projects using about 243.3 million litres per day for irrigation across 7,652 hectares. Uttar Pradesh’s 2026 policy targets 50% safe reuse by 2030 and 100% by 2033 where STPs and collection systems operate, while Odisha’s April 2026 policy targets 100% collection, conveyance and treatment by 2030 and at least 50% reuse by 2036. These targets require plants, distribution systems, quality monitoring and customers able to use treated water.

Conclusion

India’s tertiary treatment market forecast of Rs 7,013 crore by FY2031 reflects growth in producing reuse-grade water rather than simply expanding sewage-treatment capacity. The projection is supported by a Rs 1,870 crore FY2026 base, a stated 30.26% CAGR and applications ranging from thermal-power cooling to urban landscaping, but it depends on end-use quality standards, project implementation and reliable demand for treated water.

The next indicators are delivery of AMRUT 2.0 reuse infrastructure and progress against quantified state targets, particularly Uttar Pradesh’s 2030 and 2033 milestones and Odisha’s 2030 and 2036 milestones. The prospectus also identifies Nagpur’s plan to reuse more than 90% of its wastewater, including supplies to thermal power stations, as a model whose replication would increase demand for filtration, UF and RO systems.