Water is a scarce resource that is continuously threatened by pollution, growing population and strain on available reservoirs due to fast developing economies. A problem of considerable concern is posed by anthropogenic pollutants, foremost artificial organic compounds. Especially pharmaceutical residues with their intended stability are found in increasing concentrations in potable water in regions such as Chennai. Despite high standards and blanket coverage of water purification technologies for water, currently available methods most likely fail to remove many of the accumulating pharmaceuticals sufficiently. This shortcoming includes advanced oxidation technologies that are currently investigated, such as UV exposures, ozonation, hydrogen peroxide admixture and combinations of these approaches. The objective of this paper is the development of a novel and flexible technology for water purification. The immediate target is the removal of pharmaceutical residues in drinking water but other pollutants and also wastewaters will be addressed as well. Using non-thermal plasma, the closed process does not require chemical supplies or direct manual processes control. Therefore, the technology is appropriate in conditions where it is difficult to maintain a supply infrastructure. The method is only relying on electrical energy and can be adopted according to pollution levels and also operated as batch process by a discontinued power supply. With this approach, methods based on electrical power only are intended as a corner stone of a smart water treatment management that can be implemented at different locations along the supply chain on different scale. Accordingly, it is specifically anticipated a suitable enabler of smart grids. © 2020, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.