Let’s Talk Water: Bengaluru startup ECOSTP bets on natural sewage treatment to tackle India’s water crisis

Synopsis: ECOSTP, a Bengaluru-based startup, has developed a decentralised, nature-based sewage treatment system that produces water compliant with Pollution Control Board norms. Speaking on Let’s Talk Water, founder and CEO Tharun Kumar explained the drawbacks of conventional sewage treatment plants and stressed the need for localised solutions to India’s growing sewage challenge.

Most people do not understand sewage, and fewer still care about it. Speaking on South First’s Let’s Talk Water podcast, Tharun Kumar, CEO and Founder of ECOSTP, a Bengaluru-based startup reimagining wastewater treatment, highlighted how homebuyers often prioritise bathroom fittings, lakes or parks, but rarely check for the presence of a sewage treatment plant (STP).

“Recently, even builders have started advertising on radio asking people to demand STPs first. This is what really matters,” he said.

Kumar rejected the notion that nature-based sewage treatment plants do not work. “Ecostps are not an oxymoron. We have clients who have used the same water over a thousand times. There is no odour.”

With India’s population crossing 1.4 billion, and Karnataka alone home to nearly 1.5 crore people, sewage has become one of the country’s most pressing challenges.

Conventional treatment demands enormous power and chemicals. “The government cannot treat everything. Untreated sewage needs to be addressed locally. That is why we must decentralise sewage treatment,” Kumar stressed.

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A natural alternative to conventional STPs

Unlike conventional STPs, which rely on motors, pumps, blowers and continuous operator management of bacteria and oxygen, ECOSTP uses gravity and natural processes to treat sewage.

The waste passes through multiple chambers where anaerobic bacteria decompose pollutants in three stages of rumen digester filters, followed by a plant bio-filter. The system has no moving parts, requires no operators or electricity, and significantly lowers maintenance costs.

The treated water meets Pollution Control Board (PCB) norms, and the land above ECOSTP units can be reused for parking, playgrounds or landscaping, unlike conventional plants.

“Our solution is essentially a ‘Bad Water In, Good Water Out’ system. Decentralised, cost-effective and sustainable, this is the only way forward for India’s sewage crisis,” Kumar said.