Innovative technologies for faecal and wastewater management have been deployed at the ongoing Mahakumbh 2025 fair in Prayagraj in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Out of the total budget allocation of Rs 70 billion for Mahakumbh 2025, around Rs 16 billion have been allocated for water and waste management by the government of Uttar Pradesh. Also, approximately Rs 3.16 billion has been allocated for the development of open defecation free infrastructure.
The gathering is expected to generate around 16 million litres of faecal sludge and 240 million litres of wastewater per day. To manage this large scale of waste, advanced technologies like hybrid granular sequencing batch reactor (hgSBR) are expected to be used. It is likely to be deployed at three prefabricated faecal sludge treatment plants to treat sewage in an effective manner. Additionally, Geotube technology will help in the containment and treatment of wastewater. Moreover, biological treatment methods like bioremediation are also being used to treat greywater collected in about 75 large ponds. This will help to decompose the pollutants through beneficial microorganisms and curb water pollution.