After Zerodha founder's bold suggestion on Bengaluru water crisis, 300 phone calls in a day and a big debate
Nithin Kamath, the founder of Zerodha, recently in a social media post drew attention to the Bengaluru water crisis, warning that with the likelihood of more frequent extreme weather events in the future, such crises may recur. Kamath, who is one of India's youngest billionaires, also said that wastewater holds potential as a solution to this problem. Bengaluru's freshwater demand stands at approximately 2632 million litres per day (MLD), while it generates around 2000 MLD of wastewater, said Zerodha's founder. Presently, centralized sewage treatment plants handle about 1300 MLD of this wastewater, repurposing it for agricultural use. However, approximately 3500 residential and commercial complexes have decentralized sewage treatment plants (STPs), yet nearly 80% of the excess water from these STPs goes to waste. This excess STP water is of low quality and has limited usability beyond basic purposes like flushing and gardening, he said.
Kamath proposed that if this excess STP water could be effectively converted into high-quality water, it could potentially satisfy around 450-500 MLD of the city's water demand through decentralized treatment methods.
Nithin Kamath, who is also CEO of Rainmatter Foundation, in his post also shared a promotion video of Boson White Water, a Bengaluru-based firm that converts wastewater into potable water, stating that wastewater could be the part of the solution for Bengaluru's water shortage crisis.
Vikas Brahmavar, a co-founder of the startup Boson White Water, told Press Trust of
