In a report published on 25 October 2026, India Water Portal highlighted a peer-reviewed review examining how marine pollution, circular-economy measures and the blue economy interact in India. The paper analysed 3,261 publications indexed in Scopus between 1990 and 2025 and identified research on marine and coastal pollution, sustainability economics and waste management, and ocean policy, ecosystem services and climate resilience India Water Portal.
Key takeaways
- The review analysed 3,261 Scopus-indexed publications published between 1990 and 2025 India Water Portal.
- Untreated sewage, industrial discharges, plastic waste and agricultural runoff can enter estuaries and coastal waters through rivers India Water Portal.
- The report says preventing pollution at source requires improved sewage treatment, properly functioning treatment plants, stronger waste collection and enforcement of discharge standards India Water Portal.
- Coastal governance should be tailored to local priorities, including industrial effluent control in estuaries, solid-waste management on tourist beaches and habitat protection in mangrove landscapes India Water Portal.
What happened
The report presented a February 2026 Marine Pollution Bulletin review by Mallika Roy and Delwar Akbar titled The blue nexus unveiled: Interlinking marine pollution, circular economy, and the blue economy in ocean sustainability. Its literature analysis covered 3,261 publications indexed in Scopus between 1990 and 2025 and grouped them into three broad research areas India Water Portal.
The report said India’s rivers carry plastic waste, sewage, industrial effluents and agricultural runoff to the sea, placing pressure on fisheries, biodiversity, tourism and coastal livelihoods. It warned that cleaning beaches cannot stop waste at source and that effective wastewater and solid-waste systems are needed to prevent further pollution India Water Portal.
It also called for closer coordination among the Central Pollution Control Board, state pollution control boards, urban local bodies and industrial regulators through pollution-source inventories and regular reporting. State coastal-zone plans would need to align with district, municipal, port and fisheries strategies, while major infrastructure approvals would need to assess combined effects on water quality, sediment movement and local livelihoods India Water Portal.
The report described the Integrated Marine Sustainability Framework as a way to unify governance, policy, technologies and pollution drivers, but said its implementation must be tailored to local conditions rather than applied uniformly. It also said circular-economy solutions should undergo life-cycle assessment, and that alternatives to existing materials should not be adopted without evaluating their full environmental impact India Water Portal.
Specification read
No plant capacity, wastewater flow, BOD, COD, population equivalent, project cost or procurement package was reported for this review, so a capacity in m³/day cannot be calculated and no treatment class can be assigned from the source. For buyers, the event bears directly on wastewater compliance and source-control planning rather than a specific equipment award India Water Portal.
A conventional municipal wastewater train typically moves from screening and primary treatment to biological treatment, with options such as A2O, MBR, MBBR, SBR or UASB, followed by tertiary treatment and disinfection; DAF may be relevant where oil, grease or solids removal is required, while ZLD would be a separate advanced treatment route. The reported issue concerns the wastewater-treatment and collection stages because the source identifies sewage treatment, plant reliability, waste collection and discharge-standard enforcement as elements of preventing pollution before it reaches coastal waters India Water Portal.
If your plant looks like a coastal or river-adjacent wastewater facility with a documented flow in m³/day, BOD/COD in mg/L, an industrial or municipal discharge permit, and pressure to prevent untreated sewage or industrial effluent from reaching an estuary, this review means that treatment reliability, source inventories and verifiable discharge compliance should be included in scoping. The source did not report the input values needed to select or size an individual process train India Water Portal.
For broader equipment and treatment context, see the industry paper and air and dust treatment resources.
