“The demand for wastewater treatment is likely to grow with the growing economy. Koichi Matsui, CMD-UEM India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Japan based Toshiba Group, shares UEM’s role in India.
Municipalities Operations & Solutions
UEM specializes in providing turnkey solutions – complete, single-source services from engineering and design to construction and installation of water, wastewater and domestic waste treatment facilities. Among the major solutions are various modern technologies specially ZLD (Zero liquid Discharge) using HEROTM (High Efficiency Reverse Osmosis), Activated Sludge Process (ASP), Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR) and Membrane Bio Reactor (MBR) etc. for some of the leading municipalities and Industries in India like DJB, RUIDP, UPJN, JUIDCO, BUIDCO, BWSSB, KSUDP, RIL, ONGC, IOCL, NTPC and Jindal to name a few.
In India, UEM is primarily focusing on three major verticals, Municipal, Industrial and Operation & Maintenance services. In the municipal segment, UEM is focused on the Water and Wastewater Treatment Segment (WTPs/ STPs/WWTPs) using various modern technologies like Activated Sludge Process (ASP), Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR), Membrane Bio Reactor (MBR), Reverse Osmosis Membrane Treatment (RO),” informs Matsui.
Indian Market
The water/wastewater treatment in India is a $4bn industry and growing at 10-12% every year. There are several funding agencies like World Bank, ADB and JICA etc., who are funding several prestigious municipal projects in several states of India. In addition, there are also several projects under the AMRUT scheme involving lake and river conservation. Further NMCG has identified several key projects along the Ganges River in the states of Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand & West Bengal involving STP & Sewerage schemes worth over 12000cr.
For industrial wastewater treatment, the demand will grow as per Indian economic growth. We understand that significant amount of capacities would be added in Power and Refinery sectors and this would definitely augur well for the industrial wastewater treatment market. likewise, with growth in other sectors also, we assume that there would be significant demand for Water and Waste water treatment, water recycle and reuse projects.
Challenges and Opportunities
Toshiba’s brand name, technologies and footprints coupled with UEM’s expertise in EPC business and water sector in International and Indian market, will not only convert the challenges into opportunities but also bridge the gap of market scenario, if any. This would also enable UEM to reach out to more customers for securing profitable orders. Indian market is hugely competitive and under Toshiba umbrella, UEM is ready to face this competition with better technology, quality, delivery and customer satisfaction.
Swachh Bharat Mission
The Swachh Bharat Mission undertaken by the Ministry of Urban Development is one of the most commendable initiatives of the Government of India, which aims to hit at the heart of the biggest challenge which engulfs Rural and Urban India, poor sanitation conditions. A vast segment of the population has paid the price of poor sanitation with their health, and the water resource of the nation is being polluted by untreated sewage from the cities.
UEM is aware of this issue and owing to its four decades of experience in the area of Water and Wastewater Management, including Municipal waste, appreciates and understands the problem. The joint efforts made by the Central and State Governments, Urban Local Bodies and the Water and Waste Water Management Organizations
in the private sector will definitely go a long way in in enhancing the effectiveness of the scheme. Strengthening the capabilities of the ULBs in partnership with the expertise that the private sector brings with it will result in better sanitation conditions. One such instance is the initiative taken to rejuvenate the Ganges River which is a classic example of public and private partnership to see through a problem that affects the eco-system and millions of Indians. UEM is ready to support Government initiatives and believes that regulatory environment for pollution control needs to be stricter and there should be no compromise on quality and performance of water and wastewater treatment projects.
