India is facing a drinking water crisis. This time, not in some neglected corner, but in cities that proudly wear their cleanliness crowns. Places that have topped national rankings year after year are now explaining why the people in their areas are falling ill after drinking water.
When public drinking water becomes unsafe or unreliable, citizens respond by buying packaged drinking water. Bottles arrive as saviours: Sealed and branded. What they don’t say on the label is that bottled water in India has been found to contain nano-plastics. But as they say — ignorance is bliss!
Once the water is consumed, what remains is the bottle. India generates around 62 million tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, which includes 9.3 million tonnes of plastic waste. PET bottles, which are used for packaging of beverages, food and personal care, forms around 13 per cent of this plastic waste. While official statistics claim a 95 per cent collection rate of the country, the study published in the journal Nature in 2024 estimates actual collection at only 81 per cent. The rest quietly escapes into waterbodies or soil.
This is where the country’s unrecognised environmentalists — the waste pickers — step in. Informal, underpaid and largely invisible, they recover an estimated 40 per cent of recyclable waste in Indian cities. PET bottles are recycled not because of cutting-edge systems, but because waste pickers are paid a few rupees for them. And yet, these workers remain absent from the sustainability narrative.
Surat offers a cautionary tale. When the city pioneered the door-to-door waste collection, it was home to nearly 3,500 waste pickers who recovered recyclables from community containers, streets and landfill sites. A dissertation study conducted in 2023 highlighted how waste pickers got left out as the city pioneered modernisation and privatisation of its solid waste management systems or abide by the central policy guidelines.
Waste pickers reported a sharp decline in earnings, ranging from 50-70 per cent. One waste picker recalled earning Rs 1,000–1,200 a day when community bins existed. Now, Rs 500 is considered a good day.
The study also found that nearly 70 per cent of waste pickers transitioned into housekeeping, domestic work or, in a few cases, contractual waste collection. The unintended consequences of modernisation were borne disproportionately by the marginalised waste pickers.