The aim of SARASWATI 2.0 is to identify best available and affordable technologies for decentralized wastewater treatment with scope of resource/energy recovery and reuse in urban and rural areas. Further, it addresses the challenge of real time monitoring and automation. The previous SARASWATI project has shown that a number of decentralized wastewater treatment plants in India do not perform properly and that there are few plants that would meet the more stringent standards as those proposed by the Indian Government in 2015. Thus, in many cases not even CATNAP (the cheapest available technology narrowly avoiding prosecution) has been applied, leading to high pollution levels. The SARASWATI project therefore proposed to adopt the principle of BAT (best available technologies) in a more flexible way, adapting the definition of BAT to the local context, based on complementing the treatment efficiency with the costs of the treatment technology and affordability, and local context in the location of application. This will allow to identify BATs with more stringent standards if required and suitable for the location. Thereby, ten pilot technologies in 7 Indian States demonstrating enhanced removal of organic pollution (BOD, TSS), nutrients (particularly Nitrogen), organic micro-pollutants and pathogens have been proposed (WP1). Further, all pilots allow for resource recovery contributing to the principles of a circular economy and will undergo a comprehensive performance assessment (WP2) complemented by an extended sustainability assessment informed by recent ISO standards (WP4). This will allow identification of BATs for the Indian context. In addition, suitable automation and control strategies will be tested and recommended, taking into account the presence of operators and their level of knowledge and expertise (WP3). Finally, WP5 is dedicated to dissemination and exploitation of results. The consortium is comprised of a well-balanced EU-Indian team of 17 partners.

The overall aim of the SPRING project is to present an integrated water resource management for reliable water supply for all needs that involve; developing innovative simple to operate bio oxidation systems for treatment of polluted water bodies (stagnant and flowing), cost effective real time monitoring tools and finally by implementing good practices in water planning for treatment, supply and usage. SPRING aims at improving and developing technologies for the elimination of pollutants from water using a bioremediation approach. In particular, SPRING aims at improving and developing bioremediation technologies for the removal of organic micro-pollutants present in groundwater and surface water at low concentrations, and which are currently treated using expensive physicochemical technology. Innovation also revolves around provision of simplified water quality monitoring methods and developing novel microbial technology to monitor pollutants in water. The Project will also develop real time detection systems to highlight different pollutants risks and flooding/water insufficiency scenarios. Field trials of the developed prototype in urban and rural settings will be carried out with the help of Municipality and an NGO. In addition, an inclusive decision-making process will contribute to democracy and will lend the decision legitimacy. Acceptance of remediation schemes during implementation will be enhanced by involving stakeholders and the public in the decision-making stage and thus, stakeholders decision making and management framework in the form of an NGO and a local Governing Body (Municipality) will be formed. Successful implementation and demonstration of the developed systems involving all stakeholders will help to achieve wide public acceptance towards reuse and recycling of wastewater through the developed bioremediation technology