A 20-year-old entrepreneur from Mumbai has developed a decentralised, modular wastewater treatment system aimed at India's small and medium-scale industries and received recognition from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) India through its 'Youth Co: Lab National Innovation Challenge', according to a report published 1 October 2026 by ETV Bharat. The innovator, Piyush Jha, said his system targets the discharge of untreated industrial wastewater, which he estimated at nearly 18,000 million litres per day nationally, with only 20 to 30 per cent currently treated (ETV Bharat).
Key takeaways
- Piyush Jha, 20, developed a modular, decentralised wastewater treatment system initially targeting India's industrial sector (ETV Bharat).
- UNDP India recognised the innovation through its 'Youth Co: Lab National Innovation Challenge', co-led with the Citi Foundation and NITI Aayog's Atal Innovation Mission and implemented by T-Hub (ETV Bharat).
- Jha said his pretreatment solution cuts water treatment operational cost from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 5 to 7 lakh for the industries adopting it (ETV Bharat).
- His company has begun working with Indra Water, Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale and Dahej Waste Service, the last of which placed a conditional purchase order (ETV Bharat).
What happened: an industrial pretreatment play from a Mumbai startup
Jha, who moved with his family from Bihar's Madhubani to Mumbai's slums, said the innovation took shape during the Covid-19 pandemic and was refined through a UNDP-led bootcamp in Hyderabad, where he secured two major partnerships (ETV Bharat). He told PTI on the occasion of World Rivers Day that the system targets textile, leather, food and beverage, distillery, paper pulp and sugar industries, all of which generate heavily biodegradable waste (ETV Bharat).
"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," Jha said (ETV Bharat). The system relies on microorganisms to break down waste and generate electricity in the process, he added (ETV Bharat).
On cost, Jha said: "An industry may earlier spend Rs 20 lakh on operational costs for water treatment, which our pretreatment solution reduces to Rs 5 to 7 lakh" (ETV Bharat). He named three commercial partners already engaged with the company: Mumbai-based cleantech startup Indra Water, Pune-based sweets and snacks enterprise Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale, and Bharuch, Gujarat-based Dahej Waste Service, which placed a conditional purchase order (ETV Bharat).
UNDP India framed the recognition as part of a co-led programme: the 'Youth Co: Lab National Innovation Challenge' is run with the Citi Foundation, in collaboration with NITI Aayog's Atal Innovation Mission, and implemented by Hyderabad-based T-Hub (ETV Bharat). Beyond mentorship and an initial grant, Jha said UNDP connected his innovation with chemical, textile and leather industries for further partnerships and pilot opportunities (ETV Bharat).
Specification read: scale, treatment train and what it means for buyers
The reported national figure is nearly 18,000 million litres of wastewater per day, with 20 to 30 per cent currently treated, according to the source (ETV Bharat). Converted to operator units, 18,000 million litres per day is 18,000 MLD, or 18 million m³/day, the headline untreated-discharge load that any new pretreatment or modular plant has to be sized against (ETV Bharat). The source did not report a specific flow rate, BOD or COD for any individual plant, so a population-equivalent or mg/L envelope for a single installation cannot be stated from the supplied material.
The full treatment train this class of industrial wastewater typically requires runs screening → primary clarification → biological treatment (A2O, MBR, MBBR, SBR or UASB for high-strength biodegradable streams) → tertiary polishing and disinfection, with DAF or full ZLD trains added where discharge norms are tight or water is to be recycled. The Jha system, as described, sits at the biological stage and is positioned as pretreatment for the listed biodegradable-heavy sectors: textile, leather, food and beverage, distillery, paper pulp and sugar (ETV Bharat). For a buyer, the relevance is whether a compact, modular biological stage can replace or front-end a conventional civil build and cut recurring opex.
If your plant is a small or medium-scale textile, leather, food and beverage, distillery, paper pulp or sugar site discharging heavily biodegradable effluent and your current annual water-treatment opex is in the order of Rs 20 lakh, Jha's stated value proposition is a pretreatment alternative that he claims brings that figure down to Rs 5 to 7 lakh while avoiding chemical dosing and heavy civil work (ETV Bharat). For a procurement lead comparing modular biological pretreatment against a conventional civil ETP, the differentiators to score are footprint, civil scope, chemical consumption and opex per m³ treated. Operators scoping a compact biological or membrane stage in a similar biodegradable sector can also compare this approach against the engineering envelope in our Chemical industry hub and the decentralised pretreatment context covered in Effluent Treatment Plant in Noida: 2026 Engineering & Buyer's Guide, while municipal and STP-side readers can cross-reference the small-cities STP context in India clears ₹11,785 crore STP programme for small cities, October 2026.
FAQ
What is the 'Youth Co: Lab National Innovation Challenge'? It is a youth-led social innovation and entrepreneurship programme co-led by UNDP India and the Citi Foundation, in collaboration with NITI Aayog's Atal Innovation Mission and implemented by T-Hub, which provides mentorship, training and investor connections to young entrepreneurs (ETV Bharat).
How much does the new pretreatment system claim to save on operating cost? Jha told PTI that an industry that earlier spent Rs 20 lakh on operational costs for water treatment could reduce that to Rs 5 to 7 lakh with his pretreatment solution, while avoiding chemical dosing and heavy civil infrastructure (ETV Bharat).
Which industries is the system designed to serve? The source lists textile, leather, food and beverage, distillery, paper pulp and sugar, all of which Jha described as generating heavily biodegradable waste that the microorganism-based process is designed to break down (ETV Bharat).
Who are the named commercial partners and is the order firm? The report names Indra Water (Mumbai), Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale (Pune) and Dahej Waste Service (Bharuch, Gujarat); the order from Dahej Waste Service is described as a conditional purchase order (ETV Bharat).
