SBM 2.0: Rs 11,785 Crore Approved for Sewage Treatment Plants

The correct answer is Indore. The city set out to keep untreated wastewater out of the environment altogether, and that approach made it the first to be given Water+ certification; today no untreated wastewater flows through its rivers or its natural and man-made stormwater drains. Option A, Surat, took a different route, treating used water as a resource with economic value through tertiary treatment plants and large-scale non-potable reuse. Option C, Navi Mumbai, is notable as the only city in Maharashtra to hold a five-star rating together with Water+ certification, but it was not the first in the country. Option D, Tirupati, has also been declared Water Plus and is known for a revenue-earning plant, again not for being first. Indore’s model went on to encourage several smaller cities.

The correct answer is 4,900 MLD, or million litres per day. Projects approved under Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 for setting up sewage treatment plants in small cities are expected to add exactly this much capacity, and the money behind them runs into several thousand crore rupees. Options A, B and D do not match the approved figure. For the examination, keep the pair together: the amount of money approved and the capacity it buys, both of which relate to small cities rather than the metros. Note also that this capacity sits alongside the Water Plus certification framework and the ODF++ protocols, which judge whether sewage, faecal sludge and septage are safely managed, so capacity alone is not the whole measure of a city’s performance.

The correct answer is Jaipur. The Dehlawas plant was built over 22.50 hectares during 2020-23 and has the highest sewage treatment capacity in Rajasthan, at 215 MLD. It is fully automated through a SCADA system and uses a Sequencing Batch Reactor, in which wastewater passes through a Parshall flume, a primary clarifier and a basin before the chlorine tank. Treated water is reused for irrigation and industry, part of it goes to a nearby colony for gardening, and the rest is discharged into the Dravyavati river, with more than 30,000 plants raised around the site. Options A, B and C name other large Rajasthan cities, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Kota, none of which hosts this plant. Link the plant name, the city and the capacity together.