85,000 Installations of Waterless Urinals: What India’s Water-Saving Journey Teaches Us
India’s water challenge is often talked about using numbers—groundwater depletion, growing cities, rising demand and more pressure on freshwater resources. Meaningful water conservation can start with everyday infrastructure choices. One clear example is the growing use of waterless urinals. Ekam Eco Solutions has installed 85,000 of these urinals gaining on‑ground experience in helping commercial and institutional sites cut unnecessary water use. It shows that their solutions appear in offices, factories, shopping centres, theatres, Indian Railways, schools, colleges and hospitals. This milestone tells a lesson: water conservation does not always need complex changes. Sometimes just redesigning a system can produce a measurable large‑scale effect. This change saves millions of liters each year, protects rivers and gives confidence that choice counts, for the future.
Why Waterless Urinals Matter in India
A regular urinal uses water every time it's flushed. Even though the amount seems small, using it times a day can add up. This is especially true in places, with lots of people. Offices, airports, train stations, malls, hospitals, factories and schools have hundreds or thousands of people using restrooms daily. When a fixture is used repeatedly, even a small amount of water per use can become a significant resource demand.
A waterless urinal removes flushing from this process. By using drinkable water to move urine through the drain this fixture lets urine flow without a regular flush. According to Ekam Eco Solutions each Zerodor waterless urinal can save over 150,000 litres of water each year depending on how it is used and the regular fixture it replaces.
The company says its projects have saved more than 3.5 billion litres of water cumulatively for the environment today. That is where the significance of 85,000 installations of waterless urinals becomes clearer. The value is not only in the number of installations but in the repeated water savings generated by each installation.
From One Restroom to Thousands of Facilities
One of the important lessons from the 85,000 installations of waterless urinals is that sustainability can grow when we repeat the same good habit. Imagine a building that has many urinals. Each one saves water every day. Adding these savings from restrooms and buildings makes the total impact far more powerful. This way of building is useful because it does not rely on how people act.
A person may forget to turn off a tap. A visitor may not notice a water-saving sign. A facility manager cannot monitor every restroom continuously. But when unnecessary flushing is removed from the fixture itself, the saving becomes part of the infrastructure.
This is an important principle for India's growing commercial and institutional building sector: designing for efficiency can be more consistent than depending only on behavioral change.
What the 85,000 Installations Tell Us
The experience from 85,000 waterless installations offers useful lessons for facility managers and sustainability teams.
1. Small Changes Can Create Large Results
Water conservation does not always require a complete transformation of a building. Replacing a conventional flush urinal with a waterless alternative is a relatively focused intervention. Yet, when implemented across facilities with high usage, the combined impact can become substantial.
This shows how many small infrastructure improvements together help build a sustainability strategy by adding upgrades such as lighting, waste handling and low‑energy equipment. Each change strengthens the plan.
2. High-Footfall Buildings Are Important Opportunities
The potential for water savings is particularly significant in places where restroom fixtures are used frequently.
These include:
Airports and railway stations,
Shopping malls,
Corporate offices,
Manufacturing facilities,
Hotels and resorts,
Hospitals,
Schools and colleges,
Public institutions,
Large commercial buildings.
The more often a urinal is used the more valuable it is to stop unnecessary flushing. Ekam Eco Solutions says its systems work in areas. This shows how water-saving toilets can fit in buildings.
How Zerodor Approaches Waterless Sanitation
The Zerodor system developed by Ekam Eco Solutions is designed as a retrofit solution for conventional urinals.
The company explains that Zerodor uses a patented mechanical system that allows urine to pass while helping prevent sewer gases and odors from returning to the restroom. It is designed to get rid of the need for flushing water. This method also tackles a worry about waterless sanitation: odor.
Many people think waterless urinals smell bad because they believe flushing is needed to keep them fresh. Yet odor control relies on more than adding water to preserve hygiene and reduce emissions for everyone daily. Plumbing design, drainage, organic buildup, cleaning practices and sewer gases all influence restroom odor.
A properly designed waterless system can address the drainage and odor issue without continuously using potable water.
Water Conservation Is Also Wastewater Conservation
There is another important aspect of the 85,000 installations of waterless urinals: water that is not used for flushing also does not become additional wastewater.
Every conventional flush adds water to the sewage stream. Removing unnecessary flushing can therefore reduce the volume of wastewater generated by the restroom.
This matters for buildings with sewage treatment plants or other wastewater-management systems.
A sustainable facility should ideally consider the complete water cycle:
Reduce → Reuse → Treat → Recycle
Water‑efficient sanitation begins by lowering the amount of water needed at each use point. Afterwards water‑efficient sanitation can pair with wastewater treatment, rainwater collection, treated‑water reuse, leak cutting and smart plumbing fixtures. Together these steps build a wide‑spectrum water‑management plan, for communities and farms ensuring lasting water safety today.
The Financial Side of Water Conservation
Sustainability investments also need to make operational sense.
For businesses, reducing water consumption can potentially reduce water-related expenses. Depending on the facility, there may also be associated costs for wastewater treatment, sewage handling, plumbing maintenance and water supply.
The website's 2026 reporting from Ekam Eco Solutions indicates an indicative annual saving of approximately ₹8,000–₹12,000 per urinal, with actual savings depending on usage, local water costs and other site-specific factors. It estimates a typical ROI recovery period of approximately 6–12 months.
These should be treated as indicative figures rather than guaranteed savings. A facility's actual results will depend on its number of users, existing flush volume, water and sewage tariffs, operating hours and maintenance practices.
Addressing the Common Concerns
When organizations consider waterless urinals, facility teams often ask three basic questions:
Will they smell?
A properly designed waterless system can use a mechanical barrier to help prevent sewer gases and odors from returning through the drainage system. Zerodor is designed around this principle.
Are they hygienic?
Waterless does not mean maintenance-free. Like conventional urinals, they require appropriate cleaning and routine housekeeping. The difference is that cleanliness does not depend on continuous water flushing.
Are they difficult to install?
Zerodor is designed as a retrofit solution, allowing existing urinals to be converted to waterless operation rather than requiring an entirely new restroom installation.
These practical considerations are important because successful sustainability solutions need to work for housekeeping teams and facility managers—not only on paper.
Beyond the Number: A Different Way to Think About Water
The real lesson from 85,000 installations of waterless urinals is not simply that one company has reached a particular installation milestone.
It is that water conservation can become part of everyday infrastructure.
India can start saving water without waiting for all solutions to be ready. Buildings should first tackle high‑impact spots, like restrooms, where smart fixtures cut repeated use. After that the same idea can extend to areas:
Low‑flow taps and showers
Rainwater harvesting
Wastewater treatment
Treated‑water reuse
Leak detection
Efficient cooling
Water‑efficient landscaping
Responsible housekeeping
These steps together lift building water resilience and reduce operational costs protecting resources for future generations while keeping occupants comfortable and safe for all everywhere today.
What Ekam Eco Solutions' Journey Demonstrates
With more than 85,000 reported installations, Ekam Eco Solutions demonstrates how a focused sanitation innovation can expand across different sectors and locations. The company states that it has more than 13 years of field experience and more than 750 organizations using its solutions.
The company was established in 2013 from sanitation research associated with IIT Delhi and focuses on practical sustainability solutions for water and waste management.
Sustainability becomes stronger when it is practical. The broader message is simple. A solution that saves water fits existing infrastructure is manageable, for facility teams and provides results that have a better chance to scale for all in the future.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are waterless urinals?
Waterless urinals are sanitation fixtures designed to operate without conventional water flushing. They allow urine to drain while using a mechanism to help prevent sewer gases and odors from returning through the plumbing.
How much water can a waterless urinal save?
Ekam Eco Solutions reports that one Zerodor waterless urinal can save more than 150,000 litres annually, depending on usage and the conventional fixture it replaces.
Where are waterless urinals useful?
They can be particularly useful in high-footfall facilities such as offices, malls, airports, factories, hospitals, schools, colleges, railway facilities and other commercial or institutional buildings.
What does 85,000 installations of waterless urinals represent?
It represents the scale at which water-efficient sanitation can be deployed across India's built environment. Ekam Eco Solutions reports more than 85,000 installations and more than 3.5 billion litres of cumulative water savings associated with its Zerodor deployments.
Conclusion: Every Drop Saved Starts With a Better System
The story of 85,000 installations of waterless urinals offers a useful perspective on India's water future. Water conservation is not limited to large infrastructure projects or individual behavior. It can also begin with the way buildings are designed and operated.
A urinal might seem small in a building. When used thousands of times the water from each flush adds up. By reducing flushing waterless sanitation turns a regular restroom item into a chance for saving water. For Ekam Eco Solutions this shows how real ideas can help India move toward buildings that use water wisely. And for facility managers, the message is equally practical: when we design buildings to use less water, every repeated use becomes an opportunity to save another drop.