What 85,000+ Installations Taught Us About India’s Water Problem : Ekam Eco Solutions’ August 2026 Water Report

India’s water challenge is often described through numbers that are difficult to ignore: groundwater depletion, rising urban demand, water-stressed districts, unequal access and increasing pressure on freshwater resources. But there is another way to understand the problem ,by looking at what happens inside the buildings where millions of people work, travel, study, shop and access public services every day. Over the past decade, Ekam Eco Solutions has had a front-row view of that everyday water story. Through more than 85,000 Zerodor waterless urinal installations, across commercial buildings, factories, educational institutions, hospitals, hotels, transport infrastructure and other high-footfall facilities, we have seen how seemingly small sanitation decisions can translate into significant water savings at scale.

As World Water Week 2026 focuses attention on “Water for People and Progress,” Ekam is sharing a set of anonymised observations from its deployment experience. These insights are not intended to replace national water datasets or government statistics. They offer something different: a ground-level view of how water is consumed, conserved and managed inside India's built environment. The central lesson is straightforward. India’s water problem is not only about finding more water. It is also about designing systems that need less of it in the first place.

From 85,000+ installations to one national lesson

Zerodor was developed around a simple question: why should a sanitation fixture designed primarily to collect urine require repeated flushing with potable water? A conventional flush urinal can use several litres of water every time it is flushed. In high-footfall facilities, that consumption adds up quickly. A waterless urinal removes flushing from the equation, while Zerodor’s mechanical one-way valve is designed to prevent sewer gases and odour from travelling back into the restroom.

Across its deployment history, Zerodor has crossed 85,000+ installations, with the technology being adopted by more than 800+ leading organisations and brands. Based on Ekam’s installation calculations, an individual Zerodor urinal can save more than 150,000 litres of water per year, depending on usage patterns and the conventional fixture it replaces. At scale, these individual savings become much more significant. Ekam’s reported cumulative impact has crossed more than 3.5 billion litres of water saved. That number is not simply a sustainability statistic. It represents water that did not have to be pumped, treated, transported and supplied merely to flush a sanitation fixture.And this is where the installation data begins to tell a larger story.

What the deployment data tells us

Ekam’s deployment experience across more than 85,000 installations shows that water conservation in commercial and institutional buildings is rarely dependent on one major intervention. Instead, it comes from hundreds or thousands of small decisions repeated every day.

The most useful insight from the field is that water efficiency becomes much easier to achieve when it is designed into infrastructure rather than dependent entirely on user behaviour. A person may forget to switch off a tap. A facility manager may struggle to monitor every fixture. A conventional urinal, however, can continue consuming water every time it is flushed. Replacing that demand with a waterless system changes the equation at the infrastructure level. This distinction matters in India because commercial and institutional buildings can have extremely high and predictable footfall. Airports, railway stations, malls, factories, corporate campuses, hospitals and educational institutions may operate for long hours, often with thousands of daily users. In such environments, even a small saving per use can become a substantial annual saving.

Structured data: Ekam’s 2026 impact snapshot

The following table summarises key publicly shareable figures and deployment observations from Ekam Eco Solutions’ 2026 impact reporting.

Metric	Ekam Eco Solutions / Zerodor 2026 figure
Zerodor installations	85,000+
Organisations / brands served	800+
Cumulative water saved	3.5+ billion litres
Indicative water saved per urinal annually	150,000+ litres
Indicative annual saving per urinal	₹8,000–₹12,000
Typical ROI recovery period	Approximately 6–12 months
Core technology	Waterless urinal with mechanical one-way valve
Electricity required for Zerodor operation	No
Oil sealant / cartridge dependency	No

The sectors where water savings become especially visible

Although every building has a different consumption profile, Ekam’s experience shows that the potential for water conservation is particularly visible in high-footfall environments. In airports and transportation facilities, restroom fixtures can experience continuous usage throughout the day. In shopping malls and commercial buildings, the combination of long operating hours and high visitor numbers can create significant cumulative demand. Factories and industrial campuses present another interesting case. Water is often treated as an operational resource, meaning facilities already have strong incentives to reduce unnecessary consumption.

A waterless urinal can address one part of this demand without requiring employees to change their behaviour. Hospitals and educational institutions also demonstrate why sanitationinfrastructure deserves more attention in water-efficiency discussions. These buildings operate around the clock or for extended periods, and their sanitation systems serve large populations. The lesson across these environments is consistent: the more frequently a fixture is used, the more valuable every avoided flush becomes.

The objections are remarkably predictable

One of the most useful lessons from deployment experience is that the barriers to water-saving technology are not always technological. They are often psychological. Before adopting a waterless urinal, facility managers and procurement teams commonly ask three questions: Will it smell? Will it be hygienic? Will it require more maintenance? These questions are understandable. For decades, flushing has been associated with cleanliness. Water has become psychologically linked to the idea of washing something away. But flushing does not automatically eliminate odour. In a conventional urinal, urine entering a water-filled drainage system can contribute to ammonia-related odours, while poorly maintained plumbing and drainage can create additional problems.

Zerodor approaches the problem differently. Its mechanical one-way valve is designed to allow urine to pass into the drainage system while helping prevent sewer gases and odours from travelling back into the restroom. The result is a sanitation system that does not need flushing water to maintain an odour-controlled environment. The second common concern is hygiene. Waterless does not mean maintenance-free. Like every sanitation fixture, a waterless urinal still requires appropriate cleaning and routine maintenance. The difference is that its operation does not depend on continuously flushing potable water. The third concern is maintenance. Here again, simplicity can matter. Zerodor does not rely on electricity, sensors, oil sealants or conventional replaceable cartridges for its basic operation. Fewer consumable dependencies can translate into a simpler maintenance model for facility teams.

What maintenance patterns taught us

The field experience also highlights a broader lesson about sustainability technology: adoption is only successful when the solution fits the maintenance culture of the building. A theoretically efficient technology can struggle if it introduces complicated maintenance procedures, specialised consumables or frequent replacement requirements. For facility managers, therefore, water efficiency is not simply a question of litres saved. It is also a question of:

How often does the system need attention?

What consumables are required?

How easy is it for housekeeping teams to maintain?

What happens when a component needs replacement?

Can the facility team understand the system without extensive retraining?

These operational questions often determine whether a sustainability intervention survives beyond the first year. At Ekam, deployment experience has reinforced the importance of designing sustainability solutions around the people who operate buildings every day.

Connecting the micro data to India’s macro water challenge

A waterless urinal cannot solve India’s water crisis by itself. That needs to be said clearly. India’s water challenge involves agriculture, groundwater extraction, urbanisation, industrial demand, wastewater treatment, climate variability, river systems, rainfall patterns and unequal access to safe water. But the existence of a national-scale challenge should not become an excuse for ignoring smaller interventions. In fact, the opposite is true. When a country has limited freshwater resources and a rapidly growing urban population, efficiency at the point of consumption becomes increasingly important.

India has around 4% of the world’s freshwater resources but roughly 18% of the global population. The Central Water Commission and other government institutions have repeatedly highlighted the pressure on India’s per-capita water availability, while groundwater remains a critical source for agriculture, households and industry. The urban story is equally important. As cities expand, buildings become major nodes of resource consumption. Every office, mall, hotel, school, hospital and transport hub creates demand for water. The cumulative effect of these individual buildings can be enormous. That means water policy cannot focus only on dams, pipelines and groundwater recharge. The building itself has to become part of the water strategy.

Water efficiency is also an infrastructure decision

One of the strongest conclusions from Ekam’s installation experience is that water conservation becomes more durable when it is embedded into infrastructure. Awareness campaigns can encourage people to use less water. Signage can remind users to close taps. Training can improve housekeeping practices. But infrastructure can make the efficient choice the default choice. A waterless urinal does not require thousands of users to consciously decide not to flush. The system simply removes the flush from the process. This is an important principle for the next generation of Indian buildings. That shift moves sustainability from behaviour change to system design.

Beyond water savings: reducing pressure on wastewater systems

The value of waterless sanitation extends beyond the water that does not get flushed. Every litre of water avoided at the restroom fixture is also a litre that does not enter the wastewater stream.That can have implications for drainage networks and sewage treatment systems, particularly in large facilities.For buildings operating sewage treatment plants, reducing unnecessary wastewater inflow can become part of a broader water-management strategy. This is why water-efficient sanitation should be considered alongside wastewater treatment, treated-water reuse, rainwater harvesting, leak management and groundwater recharge. No single solution creates a water-resilient building. The goal is to create a water-resilient system.

The Business case matters too

Sustainability adoption in commercial buildings cannot depend only on environmental goodwill. Facility managers and procurement teams need to justify investments through operational outcomes.That is why the economics of water conservation matter. Ekam’s indicative calculations suggest that a Zerodor installation can generate annual savings of approximately ₹8,000–₹12,000 per urinal, depending on usage, local water and sewage costs and other operating conditions. The typical ROI recovery period is estimated at approximately 6–12 months, although actual payback varies by site.

This creates a useful intersection between sustainability and business performance. The same intervention can potentially reduce water consumption, reduce wastewater generation, lower operating expenditure and contribute to environmental reporting. For companies working toward ESG objectives and sustainability disclosures, measurable water-saving interventions can also help create more tangible performance indicators.

Why this matters for ESG and BRSR

India’s sustainability conversation is increasingly moving from commitments to measurement.

Companies are being asked to understand their resource consumption, environmental impacts and operational improvements with greater clarity. Water therefore needs to move from the facilities team’s utility bill to the sustainability team’s performance dashboard. For a commercial organisation, questions such as these are becoming increasingly relevant:

How much water does each facility consume?

Where is the highest consumption occurring?

How much water is used for sanitation?

How much can be avoided through fixture-level interventions?

How much wastewater is generated?

How much treated water is reused?

What improvements can be independently measured year over year?

The answers create a more complete water story for corporate sustainability reporting.

What 85,000+ installations taught us

If we had to reduce our deployment experience to five lessons, they would be these.

First, water conservation works best when it is designed into infrastructure. Asking users to change behaviour is important, but removing unnecessary consumption from the system can be even more powerful.

Second, high-footfall buildings are high-impact opportunities. Airports, malls, factories, hospitals, campuses and public facilities can generate substantial savings because of their usage volumes.

Third, simplicity drives adoption. Facility teams want solutions that are reliable, understandable and practical to maintain.

Fourth, sustainability must make operational sense. Environmental impact becomes easier to scale when it is accompanied by measurable financial value.

Fifth, India's water future will depend on millions of smaller decisions. A national water challenge cannot be solved by one technology. It requires a network of interventions across agriculture, cities, buildings, industries, wastewater and communities.

From “water-saving” to “water-positive thinking”

The next phase of India's water conversation should go beyond asking how much water we use. We should ask what happens to every litre before, during and after use. At Ekam Eco Solutions, our work with Zerodor is one part of that larger vision. Waterless sanitation demonstrates how a familiar building system can be redesigned to eliminate unnecessary water consumption. Other interventions, including wastewater treatment, reuse, rainwater management and efficient fixtures , can address other parts of the water cycle. The objective is not simply to use less. It is to use water intelligently.

Water for People. Water for Progress.

World Water Week 2026 gives us an important opportunity to rethink the relationship between water and development. Water is not separate from economic progress. It enables cities to function. It supports businesses. It sustains public health. It powers agriculture and industry. It shapes where communities can grow. That is why water security is ultimately a development issue. And India's next phase of development will require us to build differently. The experience of more than 85,000+ Zerodor installations has taught Ekam a simple but powerful lesson: the biggest water savings do not always come from dramatic changes. At Ekam Eco Solutions, our contribution is to keep asking the uncomfortable questions, redesigning everyday systems and demonstrating that sustainability can work at scale.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. How much water does a Zerodor waterless urinal save?

Ekam Eco Solutions estimates that one Zerodor waterless urinal can save more than 150,000 litres of water annually, depending on usage patterns and the conventional fixture being replaced.

Q2. How many Zerodor installations are there in India?

As of 2026, Ekam Eco Solutions reports more than 85,000 Zerodor installations.

Q3. How much water has Zerodor saved?

Ekam reports cumulative water savings of more than 3.5 billion litres through Zerodor installations.

Q4.Does Zerodor require electricity?

No. Zerodor is designed as a mechanical waterless urinal and does not require electricity, sensors or electronic controls for its basic operation.

Q5.Does a waterless urinal smell?

Zerodor uses a mechanical one-way valve designed to allow urine to drain while helping prevent sewer gases and odours from travelling back into the restroom. Proper cleaning and maintenance remain important, as with any sanitation fixture.

Q6.Does Zerodor require cartridges or oil sealants?

Zerodor's core system does not rely on oil sealants or conventional replaceable cartridges.

Q7.Where can waterless urinals be used?

They can be considered for a wide range of high-usage facilities, including offices, malls, airports, factories, hospitals, hotels, schools, colleges, railway facilities and other institutional or commercial buildings.

Q8.Can waterless urinals contribute to ESG and BRSR water reporting?

Water-saving fixtures can contribute to a company's broader water-efficiency strategy by creating measurable reductions in freshwater consumption. Organisations should use their own metered baseline, usage data and applicable reporting methodology when quantifying and disclosing savings.

Q9.Why is waterless sanitation relevant to World Water Week 2026?

World Water Week 2026's theme, “Water for People and Progress,” highlights the relationship between water security and development. Water-efficient sanitation is one practical way buildings can reduce avoidable freshwater demand while supporting more resource-efficient urban infrastructure.