New Delhi, Aug. 5 -- India's cities are generating far more sewage than they can treat; with an estimated 52,644 million litres per day (MLD) of sewage against an installed treatment capacity of 31,885 MLD, leaving a treatment gap of more than 20,700 MLD, a parliamentary standing committee report tabled on Tuesday said. It warned that inadequate treatment capacity, weak operation and maintenance (O&M) and poor wastewater reuse continue to undermine urban sanitation. The committee has also flagged the issue of capacity often failing to translate into effective sanitation outcomes. The report said a third-party survey of over 1,000 plants revealed that only 51% of STPs comply with 2015 discharge standards and a mere 15% meet the more stringent 2019 norms. It further noted that despite expansion of STPs out of 113.2 million urban households, only 34.5 million in AMRUT cities are connected to sewer networks, while nearly 28.5 million depend on septage-based sanitation systems. States including Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar rely more on septage systems than sewer networks, reflecting uneven sanitation infrastructure. The committee also flagged serious deficiencies in septage-based sanitation, citing a study that found 60% of urban households depend on untrained masons instead of municipal guidance for septic tank construction, resulting in tanks that are often three to four times larger than prescribed standards. The Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs, in its report 'Review of Sewerage and Septage Coverage in Cities with special reference to interventions under AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) and AMRUT 2.0', said that despite investments, urban wastewater management remains constrained by gaps across the sanitation chain, from collection and treatment to recycling and reuse....