Decoding Desludging Challenges in Towns of Uttar Pradesh

June 04, 2025

More than 700 urban local bodies (ULBs) out of 762 in Uttar Pradesh rely heavily on on-site sanitation systems, implying that faecal sludge generation and its storage in some quantum or form happens onsite. As of April 2025, 55 towns had either faecal sludge treatment plants (FSTPs) or co-treatment facilities operating at various capacities. Currently, however, 15 out of 36 towns with FSTPs and three out of 19 towns with co-treatment have less than 20 percent capacity utilization for treating the sludge generated from these systems. The remaining towns have better utilization.

Why is there fluctuating capacity utilization in towns?

CSE undertook a study to explore the primary and secondary factors responsible for this and to enhance understanding of ‘desludging’ and its associated attributes in four towns—two with poor capacity utilization reported and two with better capacity utilization. Addressing concerns around plant utilization in Uttar Pradesh is crucial as many plants run far below capacity, posing a question mark over the initial planning on the one-size-fits-all approach. The findingd of this study are expected to lead to a realistic sizing of FSTPs in the future.