Views of Guillaume Dourdin: “Water will soon be too valuable to use only once”

With a legacy dating back to 1853, Veolia, globally regarded as a leader in environmental solutions, has steadily expanded its footprint in India over the past 25 years. Starting with a pilot 24×7 water supply project, the company has since expanded its footprint across municipal water and wastewater services industrial hazardous waste treatment, and emerging decarbonisation solutions. Guillaume Dourdin, CEO & Country Director, India, Veolia, discussed the company’s evolving role, technology adoption, wastewater reuse ambitions, and future strategy anchored around water circularity and operational excellence. Excerpts…

Veolia’s role in the water sector

Veolia entered the Indian market with the idea of developing the concept of 24×7 water supply. It began with an ambition to demonstrate that people can receive tap water permanently. This started with a demo project in a small district in Nagpur. The project was successful and led to the first full city concession of Nagpur.  Building on this success, it expanded its municipal water services with the Nangloi Water Services project in Delhi and performance-based contracts in Karnataka, laying the foundation for its first phase of operations in India, fully focused on transforming urban water delivery up to 2017.

In 2017, aligning with the Group’s strategy, the focus was on serving industrial customers in addition to municipal clients. This led to the foray into the hazardous waste business.  Since then, Veolia has developed two key pillars in India: water and wastewater management, and industrial hazardous waste treatment, with a strong operational presence in Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Gujarat. Today, Veolia’s presence in India also includes Watertech, a technology-focused subsidiary which leverages global expertise to provide innovative, end-to-end solutions for municipalities and industries, including water treatment, resource recovery, and regulatory-compliant disposal. Under the strategic plan GreenUp 2024-27, Veolia is committed to continuing growth across all businesses. This includes reinforcing performance in the water sector, selectively expanding geographically, accelerating the industrial activity and broadening the services that are offered to industrial customers, particularly improving water treatment and energy efficiency and total waste management.

Key challenges in the 24×7 Nagpur water supply project and other projects in the pipeline

Veolia, India in partnership with Vishvaraj Infrastructure Limited, successfully implemented 24×7 water supply in Nagpur, significantly benefiting and supporting the local ecosystem through sustainable water management solutions. While the partnership was helpful initially, it eventually slowed the ability to deliver the performance and standards that Veolia aimed for. Therefore, in 2021, Veolia, India acquired Vishvaraj’s stake and continued as a 100 per cent entity, which significantly accelerated progress. Since taking over, the pipeline network more than doubled, multiplied household connections three to four times, and reduced non-revenue water (NRW) extent from about 65-70 per cent to roughly 29.5 per cent.      However, after accounting for commercial recovery from meter-related violations,  the contractual obligation for the NRW is to reach 25 per cent by 2027, and it is on track towards achieving our goal. Beyond Nagpur, Veolia continues to expand in the municipal water sector and support cities aiming for 24×7 water supply.  It has also undertaken major drinking water projects, including the 2,000 million litres per day (mld) Bhandup plant in Mumbai. Led by Welspun Enterprises, the Veolia Group will support as a technology and O&M partner, ensuring clear roles and efficient delivery.

“Water reuse is still atan early stage in India.”

Technologies for leak detection and smart meter adoption

Digital systems have long been central to the operations at Veolia, even before the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). A control centre has been set up in Nagpur, where digital twin technology has been introduced, which simulates network behaviour and supports decision-making. While this represents the foundational level of AI, it has already strengthened operational efficiency. At the Group level, several digital innovations and AI initiatives are under way, and India follows these closely to enhance service quality and operational performance.

In Nagpur, data-driven leak detection has become significantly more effective. Rather than searching randomly, extensive data and proper analysis allow the identification of the exact sections where physical leak detection should be conducted, greatly improving the efficiency of leakage detection. This targeted approach is one of the key reasons for the operational success. Veolia has also explored other technologies like helium-leak detection, but in dense urban environments, it has been difficult to pinpoint the source accurately, making the method imprecise. Today, as part of an IIT initiative, work on camera-based detection and the installation of small cameras has proven more efficient in identifying leakages or illegal connections. Veolia remains open to collaborating with companies, start-ups and universities to help test, co-develop or improve solutions directly through operations.

Status of water circularity in India 

Water reuse is still at an early stage in India, but it is becoming essential as water scarcity and pollution increase. Water will soon be too valuable to use only once, making its reuse unavoidable, first in agriculture and industry, and eventually even for drinking, where the technology already exists but requires strong management and social acceptance. The most immediate opportunity is industrial reuse, where many projects are emerging, and Veolia brings in extensive experience from large-scale operations across Asia.

The zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) facility in Ankleshwar, Gujarat,  showcases Veolia India’s approach to sustainable industrial water management. Veolia treats highly concentrated effluent, recovers reusable water for industry and safely disposes off the remaining waste. The site handles a large amount of effluent of around 1,000 tpd, and Veolia shifted from tanker transport to producing steam from part of the recovered water and supplying it through a pipeline in 2019-20. This has reduced customers’ dependence on coal-generated steam and contributed to early decarbonisation efforts.

Going forward, the focus will be on industries with high energy or water demand like petrochemicals, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, steel, food and beverages, and microelectronics, where ultra-high water quality is critical. After      Gujarat , the next development is likely to be near Mumbai in Maharashtra, serving the city’s industrial zone. Veolia is exploring opportunities both as a merchant facility receiving waste on our site and as an on-site operator running or optimising customers’ ZLD systems.

Sludge management, bio-CNG, and energy optimistion efforts

Energy efficiency and decarbonised operations are becoming key differentiators for Veolia, especially in desalination. Beyond efficient processes with strong energy recovery, it is essential that new capacity does not add to the carbon balance. This is why we want to focus on bio-compressed natural gas (CNG) rather than solar, as solar is now a commodity technology, and our core strength is operations. Cities already generate large untapped energy resources, particularly food waste and municipal sludge, which can be converted into CNG. One of our initiatives in this direction is a 91 mld wastewater treatment plant in Nilothi, which uses sludge digestion to produce 30-50 per cent of its own energy needs. We are now assessing how to upgrade this further so that, instead of electricity, the biogas could be refined into CNG and injected into the infrastructure network.

This approach offers two benefits – it produces an alternative and low-carbon energy from waste, and it reduces sludge volumes through digestion. Sludge, in my view, will become the next major challenge for municipalities. As cities expand wastewater treatment and with the cleaning of rivers, the volume of sludge will rise sharply. Delhi already generates an estimated 2,000-2,500 tpd of sludge, and full wastewater treatment could potentially double the amount of sludge. Managing such quantities will require specific and dedicated projects.

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Taxonomy

• Industrial Water Reuse
• IT
• India
• water treatment
• Water, Waste Water Chemical & Treatment
• water treatment operator
• India