92
and degradation of the urban environment and beauty of the city (Lilliana
Abarca Guerrero et al. 2013). More serious, however, and often unrecognized, is the
transfer of pollution to water, groundwater. Air pollution can be caused by the inefficient burning of wastes, either in the open air or in plants that lack effective treatment facilities from the gaseous effluents (Nag and Vizayakumar 2005; Zurbrugg
2002). At present, India is the second largest country in the world with a population
of 1.21 billion, accounting for nearly 18% of world’s population. During last decade
(2001–2011), the population growth rate was 17.64% and more than 181 million
people increased. Even though this was the sharpest decline in population growth
rate registered post-Independence the absolute addition during 2001–2011 is almost
as much as the population of Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world.
The proportion of population residing in urban areas has increased from 27.80% in
2001 to 31.80% in 2011 (Census of India 2011). The problem of municipal solid
waste management (MSWM) has acquired alarming dimensions in India, especially
over the last decade, before which waste management was hardly considered an
issue of concern as the waste could be easily dumped in available open spaces
(Ramachandra 2006). An unplanned rapid urban growth and expansion of slum-like
conditions in small and mid-size towns and cities are bases of a growing public
concern for sanitation and public health in the country (Hanrahan 2006). Moreover,
with time, due to changing lifestyles of people coupled with developmental activities and industrialisation, the waste quantity and characteristics have changed, and
as a result, managing solid wastes has become torturous. Although management of
solid waste is one of the obligatory services provided by Urban Local Bodies
(ULBs) in India (The Constitution Act 1992), this indispensable system has an enormous gap to fill and experienced several problems and challenges towards fulfilling
its responsibilities in the country.
5.2 Methodology
This review paper is mainly based on electronically available materials. A comprehensive literature search was carried out, focused on empirical studies describing
problems and challenges to proper waste management in Indian urban areas.
Literature database Web of Science (Version 5.22.3) and the commercial search
engine like www.scholar.google.co.in were used to congregate peer-reviewed
papers published between the years 1990 and 2017. Three search terms applied to
collect literature. Using the first term ‘solid waste management in developing countries’ 3 papers and ‘municipal solid waste management in India’ 16 papers has been
selected for this study. Subsequently, 103 papers were selected using the third term
which had two parts, one is common, that is, ‘municipal solid waste management
in’ and last part was changed according to city/town name like ‘municipal solid
waste management in Kolkata’ or ‘municipal solid waste management in Mumbai’
and so on. In addition, hardcopy literature including14 research paper and 4 books
on MSWM available in the Central Library of North-Eastern Hill University and 5
Ph. D theses available in Shodhganga @INFLIBNET had also been reviewed for
M. Ray et al.
and degradation of the urban environment and beauty of the city (Lilliana
Abarca Guerrero et al. 2013). More serious, however, and often unrecognized, is the
transfer of pollution to water, groundwater. Air pollution can be caused by the inefficient burning of wastes, either in the open air or in plants that lack effective treatment facilities from the gaseous effluents (Nag and Vizayakumar 2005; Zurbrugg
2002). At present, India is the second largest country in the world with a population
of 1.21 billion, accounting for nearly 18% of world’s population. During last decade
(2001–2011), the population growth rate was 17.64% and more than 181 million
people increased. Even though this was the sharpest decline in population growth
rate registered post-Independence the absolute addition during 2001–2011 is almost
as much as the population of Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world.
The proportion of population residing in urban areas has increased from 27.80% in
2001 to 31.80% in 2011 (Census of India 2011). The problem of municipal solid
waste management (MSWM) has acquired alarming dimensions in India, especially
over the last decade, before which waste management was hardly considered an
issue of concern as the waste could be easily dumped in available open spaces
(Ramachandra 2006). An unplanned rapid urban growth and expansion of slum-like
conditions in small and mid-size towns and cities are bases of a growing public
concern for sanitation and public health in the country (Hanrahan 2006). Moreover,
with time, due to changing lifestyles of people coupled with developmental activities and industrialisation, the waste quantity and characteristics have changed, and
as a result, managing solid wastes has become torturous. Although management of
solid waste is one of the obligatory services provided by Urban Local Bodies
(ULBs) in India (The Constitution Act 1992), this indispensable system has an enormous gap to fill and experienced several problems and challenges towards fulfilling
its responsibilities in the country.
5.2 Methodology
This review paper is mainly based on electronically available materials. A comprehensive literature search was carried out, focused on empirical studies describing
problems and challenges to proper waste management in Indian urban areas.
Literature database Web of Science (Version 5.22.3) and the commercial search
engine like www.scholar.google.co.in were used to congregate peer-reviewed
papers published between the years 1990 and 2017. Three search terms applied to
collect literature. Using the first term ‘solid waste management in developing countries’ 3 papers and ‘municipal solid waste management in India’ 16 papers has been
selected for this study. Subsequently, 103 papers were selected using the third term
which had two parts, one is common, that is, ‘municipal solid waste management
in’ and last part was changed according to city/town name like ‘municipal solid
waste management in Kolkata’ or ‘municipal solid waste management in Mumbai’
and so on. In addition, hardcopy literature including14 research paper and 4 books
on MSWM available in the Central Library of North-Eastern Hill University and 5
Ph. D theses available in Shodhganga @INFLIBNET had also been reviewed for
M. Ray et al.