Develop water-secure cities with wastewater treatment and aquifer recharge

The promise was to create water-secure cities through wastewater treatment, aquifer recharge and smart metering for bulk consumers. AMRUT 2.0 is directly mapped to the urban water-security part of the promise because it aims at universal water supply in statutory towns and sewerage and septage coverage in the original 500 AMRUT cities. Official evidence reports 3,568 water-supply projects worth Rs 1,14,220.62 crore, 592 sewerage and septage projects worth Rs 67,607.67 crore, 6,739 MLD STP capacity approved and SCADA technology approved in both water-supply and sewerage projects. The operational guidelines also include used-water recycling, identification of bulk users of recycled water and smart solutions such as SCADA, while the reforms toolkit refers to metering for reducing non-revenue water. Aquifer recharge is supported more broadly through Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari and water-conservation work, but completed water-secure cities and nationwide bulk-consumer smart metering were not evidenced. Budget: direct allocation exists through AMRUT 2.0 with total indicative outlay of Rs 2,99,000 crore and central outlay of Rs 76,760 crore, and project-level approvals exist, but city-level utilisation proving full water security was not found.