municipal solid waste management in kanpur, india obstacles and prospects

8/11/2019 Municipal Solid Waste Management in Kanpur, India Obstacles and Prospects

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Municipal solid wastemanagement in Kanpur, India:

obstacles and prospectsHina Zia and V. Devadas

Department of Architecture and Planning,Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee, Haridwar, India

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this research is to assess the existing state of MSW in Kanpur city withthe aim of identifying the main obstacles to its efficiency and the prospects for improvisation of thesolid waste management system in the city.

Design/methodology/approach The research has been conducted in three stages. The first stage

involved collection of background information through various reports, publications of variousorganizations to understand the state of MSWM in the city, followed by interviews with various headsof the Municipal Corporation involved in SWM, municipal workers and residents of the city. Fieldstudies were conducted in few wards of the city and official dump sites. The third stage involvedconducting interviews with planning experts and representatives from NGOs to derive information onvarious SWM related problems and prospects for improvising the system.

Findings The existing solid waste management system in the city appears to be highly inefficient.Only primary and secondary collection, transportation and open dumping are practiced, that too in anon-technical manner.

Research limitations/implications There is a need to establish a detailed database regardingthe quantity and quality of the waste generated by various generators category wise. There is a needto find the exact size of the informal waste recycling sector and the economics of waste recycling in thecity to integrate it with the formal sector.

Originality/value This paper systematically assesses the obstacles in the existing solid wastemanagement system in Kanpur city and tries to assess the potentials for its improvisation.

KeywordsWaste management, Waste rates, India

Paper typeResearch paper

IntroductionSolid waste management is defined as the application of techniques to ensure anorderly execution of the various functions of collection, transport, processing,treatment and disposal of solid waste (Robinson, 1986). It has developed from its earlybeginnings of mere dumping to a sophisticated range of options including re-use,recycling, incineration with energy recovery, advanced landfill design and engineering

and a range of alternative technologies. It aims at an overall waste managementsystem which is the best environmentally, economically sustainable for a particularregion and socially acceptable (World Resource Foundation, 1996; McDougall et al.,2001).

Indian cities which are fast competing with global economies in their drive for fasteconomic development have so-far failed to effectively manage the huge quantity ofwaste generated. Theper capitawaste generation is though less than that of developedeconomies but the overall quantity is enormous due to the large population residing in

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Municipalsolid waste

management

89

Management of Environmental

Quality: An International Journal

Vol. 18 No. 1, 2007

pp. 89-108

q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

1477-7835

DOI 10.1108/14777830710717749
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the cities, especially the metropolitan cities. Kanpur, earlier called the Manchester ofthe East is one such industrial metropolitan city of North-India where wastemanagement is ineffective due to various reasons like poor management, lackadaisicalapproach towards waste management practices, public apathy, lack of political will,

urbanization patterns, population growth, etc.In Kanpur city, waste is generated from various sources like, domestic, industrial

and commercial and the waste generation rate has been steadily increasing as is thecommon phenomena observed in urban centers world wide. Indiscriminate dumping ofwaste in and around the city is rampant. Heaps of waste can be seen clogging thedrains (leading to flooding during monsoons), road sides and even middle of the roads,market places, commercial centers, residential premises and open land wherever found.Industrial wastes specially from tanneries and bio-medical wastes can be seen dumpedalong with the domestic and commercial waste throughout the city. Such hazardouswaste is in fact taken as municipal wastes only. Attempts made by the interventionslike Institutional and Community Development project (under GAP (a list ofabbreviations can be found in the Appendix) in 1996-2001) failed to improve thesituation and the city continues to be littered with waste of all sorts. Private-sectorinvolvement in SWM in the city is negligible due to lack of incentives on the part ofgovernment. There is, therefore, an urgent need to thoroughly examine the existingstate of solid waste management in the city, identify the bottlenecks and propose astrategic management plan which could be effective in the city in accordance to itsstrengths and weaknesses. For a better understanding of the above issues, the paper issubdivided as follows:

. a brief history of Kanpur, population growth rate and urban sprawl;

. an overview of the existing solid waste management practices;

. legal aspects of MSWM related to disposal of collected/processed wastes;

.

results;. discussion; and

. conclusion

A brief history of Kanpur, population growth rate and urban sprawlStudy area: Kanpur CityThe study area of Kanpur Urban Agglomeration lies towards the North-eastern part ofDistrict Kanpur Nagar. It is situated in the lower section of the Ganga and Yamunadoab, between the parallels of 258260 and 268580 North latitude and 798310 and 808340

East meridians of longitude in an irregular quadrilateral shape (Figure 1). It has a totalarea of 298.98 sq.km. It is the most populated metropolitan city of Uttar Pradesh state

and the states chief industrial centre. It is located on the right bank of the river Ganga.It enjoys a central position in Uttar Pradesh and is at a distance of 63 km from the statecapital, Lucknow and 425 km from the national capital Delhi.

The origin of Kanpur is often traced back to the mythological periods ofMahabharata(a Hindu epic) and Lord Krishna. According to the legend, it is the placewhere ear-piercing ceremony of Lord Krishna was performed. According to historians,the town was founded by King Chandel of Sachendi in 1750 AD . It was earlier calledKanhaiyapur, which later became Kanpur.

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The rapid growth of Kanpur and its emergence as an important industrial and tradecentre began in the late 18th century when the East India Company established itsgarrison in the city. The city had three distinct parts: the Cantonment, the Civil Linesand the Native town. In the year 1832, the famous Grand Trunk (GT) road wasconstructed between Allahabad and Kanpur followed by Kanpur-Kalpi road in 1846.These linkages contributed to the accelerated development of industries and trade inthe city. In the last two decades, the pace of industrial development has though slowed

Figure 1.Location of study area:

Kanpur


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down; it however continues to be the largest city in Uttar Pradesh state and the eighthlargest city of the country.

Population growthThe city is experiencing a high growth rate of population as presented in Table I. Thedensity of Kanpur Municipal Corporation also shows an increasing trend. It was 3,274persons per sq.km in 1961 and gradually increased to 9,275 persons per sq.km in 2001.

Urban sprawlUrban centers are dynamic in nature continuously experiencing change in land usepatterns and city limits. Kanpur city is no exception to this process of urban sprawl.Increase in urban sprawl results in need for wider coverage of waste collection,transportation and disposal facilities. An attempt has, therefore, been made to studythe spread of Kanpur for various years, based on data from various sources. Theresults are shown in Table II. The city of Kanpur has undergone extremely fast

expansion in recent years due to various reasons. The rapid changes in the urban land

Urban area Urban growth Urban growthSerial No. Year (1975 has been taken as base year) sq.km sq.km (%)

1 1975 114.222 1986 170.59 56.37 49.353 1989 211.40 97.18 85.084 1991 298.89 184.67 161.677 2001 298.898 2021 (proposed) 340.23 226.01 197.87

Source: Based on various reports of Kanpur Development Authority (KDA)

Table II.Urban growth of Kanpurin different years

Changes during the preceding decadesCensus year Total population (%)

1881 151,4441891 188,444 24.41901 202,797 7.61911 178,557 211.91921 216,436 21.21931 243,755 12.61941 487,324 99.91951 705,383 44.6

1961 971,062 37.91971 1,275,242 31.31981 1,639,000 28.51991 2,037,333 24.32001 2,772,212 36.1

Source: Based on Robert Montgomery,Statistical Report of the District Of Cawnpore, Calcutta (1849);Nevill H.R.,District Gazetteer of Cawnpore, Allahabad (1909) and Census of India, Government of India(various years)

Table I.Growth of population inKanpur urbanagglomeration(1881-2001)

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use and their expansion need to be monitored frequently for effective and realisticphysical planning of the urban sprawl (an important component of the Master Plans)and to check uncontrolled growth of the city (Kalubarme et al., 1985).

The urban extent of Kanpur metropolis in 1975 was 114.22 sq.km, while in 1986 it

was 170.59 sq.km. Thus, the urban growth recorded during the 11 years period of1975-1986 is 56.37 sq.km, an average annual urban growth rate of 4.48 per cent. Therate of growth between 1975 and 1989 is 97.18 sq.km, which amounts to an increase ingrowth by 85.08 per cent. The period 1989-1991 experienced a tremendous growth of20.7 per cent per annum.

Increase in the built-up area has obviously led to adverse effects on other land usecategories. It has been noticed that the urban sprawl has extended along the East-westtransportation network. Furthermore, specific growth has been identified in the Southof city. The city, at present, is therefore facing a lot of infrastructure related problemslike housing shortage, unplanned road networks, traffic related problems, watersupply, sewerage related problems, poor management of wastes, shortage of powersupply, etc.

Existing status of solid waste management in Kanpur cityField studies and questionnaire administrationBoth primary and secondary sources of information were employed in the currentstudy. Primary data sources include interviews with various heads of the MunicipalCorporation involved in SWM (City Cleansing, Health and Engineering departments),NGOs (eco-friends, Shramik Bharti), municipal workers(sanitary inspectors, drivers,sanitary workers, etc), residents of the city, field observations and discussion withexperts(scientists from Common Effluent Treatment Plant and State Pollution ControlBoard). Secondary sources of information include maps, census reports, reports by thelocal government (Municipal Corporation) and information published in books.

Kanpur city is divided into six zones and 110 wards for discharge of variousadministrative services. The responsibility of solid waste management is that ofKanpur Municipal Corporation. Field studies were conducted in representative wardsfrom the core city, middle zone and suburbs to have a better understanding of theoverall waste management status in different parts of the city. Twelve wards wereinvestigated for the status of secondary storage of wastes, collection points and overallsanitation in the ward. A small sample of people working in the informal wasterecycling sector was also conducted as recycling forms an important part of the ISWMhierarchy and the study area has an estimated 15,000-20,000 people working in thesegment (Srivastava, 2002). The Investigators conducted a random sample survey(with replacement) for 20 waste pickers/dump pickers, five itinerant waste buyers(kabaries), three jogies, seven retailers, two bone collectors/merchants and three

wholesalers. Thus, a total of 40 respondents were interviewed from the informal wasterecycling sector in the study area of Kanpur city.

Sources and characteristics of wasteCities are often generators of huge quantity of waste due to larger population andhigher concentration of industrial and commercial activities and typical so-calledurban lifestyle. As the city grows, economically as well as spatially, the per capitawaste generation also increases (Hoornweg et al., 1999). The major generators and


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types of waste generated in the study area are given in Table III. The per capitawastegeneration and its characteristics vary from zone to zone depending on the land use,socio-economic and cultural factors.

The physical characteristics of the generated waste and the variations observed in

different income-groups and functional areas are presented in Table IV.There is no data base as to the quantity of waste generated or the yearly change in

waste generation rates. Therefore, findings observed during the ICDP project havebeen considered for waste generation estimates. Considering a floating population of0.2 million and their average municipal waste generation to be 0.3 kg/capita/day, 60tons of waste is generated by the floating population. Taking the average generationrate of 0.55 kg/capita/day, the waste generation by the resident population of Kanpurcity as stated in Table IV for the year 2001 is 1,524 tons/day and total municipal wastegeneration as 1,584 tons/day.

The average waste collection as reported by the Kanpur Nagar Nigam is 90 per cent(1,266 tons/day). By field study however, it is estimated to be 42.92 per cent. The

remaining 57.08 per cent is the gap between waste generation estimates and collection.A certain portion of the organic waste is eaten by cows, stray dogs and pigs from thewaste collection depots and streets. Stray animals eat up to 5 per cent of the wastegenerated and almost 14 per cent is recovered by the recycling sector (ICDP-Phase 1,1996; ICDP-Phase 2, 2001a; ICDP-Phase 3, 2001b).The estimated gap between wastegeneration and collection in Kanpur city is presented in Table V.

Administrative aspects of waste managementKanpur Municipal Corporation also known as Kanpur Nagar Nigam (KNN, n.d.) is thelocal body for maintaining sanitary and hygienic condition (including health and solidwaste management) of Kanpur city. It is headed by the Mayor and a board of 12

corporators. Three departments of KNN are involved in solid waste management.(1) Health Department. Primary collection of waste comes under the purview of

Health department.

Serial No. Sources Types of waste

1 Households and institutions Mostly organic with some plastics, glass,metals, inert materials and hazardous wastelike batteries, paint, etc.

2 Schools Mostly papers3 Vegetable/fruit markets, restaurants, etc. Mostly organic4 Commercial centers Mostly paper and plastics

5 Healthcare facilities Infectious and non-infectious waste6 Industries Leather wastes, spent chemicals, metals,

plastics, glass, etc.7 Slaughterhouses Bones, blood, intestines, carcasses, etc.8 Animal husbandry and diaries Dung and used straw, kanaa(used to feed

pigs)9 Wastewater treatment plants Chromium rich toxic wastes

Source: Prepared by authors based on field observations

Table III.Generators of waste andtypes of waste

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SerialNo.

Item

Mixed

DoortodoorHIG

ResiHIG

MIG

LIG

Veg.marketCo

mm.area

Indusarea

CollectiondepotDisp.site

Sample

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1

Biodegradable

34.9

4

58.6

0

5

9.9

6

38.6

5

29.2

7

34.9

4

29.2

7

58.6

0

59.9

6

38.6

5

2

Paper

3.6

9

5.1

2

5.7

7

4.8

0

0.5

9

3.6

9

0.5

9

5.1

2

5.7

7

4.8

0

3

Plastics

6.2

2

5.4

0

5.9

1

5.1

0

4.1

8

6.2

2

4.1

8

5.4

0

5.9

1

5.1

0

4

Rubberandleather

2.6

9

2.4

6

2.9

0

2.1

0

0.9

5

2.6

9

0.9

5

2.4

6

2.9

0

2.1

0

5

Rags

5.1

0

7.5

5

5.5

9

3.9

5

2.2

7

5.1

0

2.2

7

7.5

5

5.5

9

3.9

5

6

Metal

0.0

1

0.0

1

7

Ceramic

0.0

1

0.0

1

8

Inertandfine

earth

38.8

17.1

2

1

6.3

37.2

2

51.4

6

38.8

51.4

6

17.1

2

16.3

37.2

2

9

Fineorganic

8.5

1

3.7

5

3.5

7

8.1

6

11.2

8

8.5

1

11.2

8

3.7

5

3.5

7

8.1

6

Notes:HIG

Highinco

megroup;MIG

Middleincomegroup;LIG

Lowincomegroup

Source:KanpurNagarNigam

(1999)

Table IV.Physical analysis of

Kanpur city refuse (dryweight by per cent)


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(2) City Cleansing Department.Secondary collection, transportation and disposal ofwaste is looked after by this department.

(3) Engineering Department.This section deals with the repair and maintenance ofvehicles.

The three departments work on their own without any co-ordination among them.Primary collection involves sweeping the streets and cleaning the drains in an area

assigned to the sweepers, followed by transportation to the assigned collection pointsin handcarts (trolleys). Three different types of waste storage facilities are used inKanpur city. They are:

(1) rubbish depots (an enclosed storage area for wastes with concrete floor andsurrounding walls, with two entrances at the front or side);

(2) open depots (an open space without any built boundaries and treated as anofficial storage point); and

(3) containers (open type containers with smaller capacity of 0.75 m3 and 1.0 m3

and bigger containers of capacity 6.5 m3 and 8.5 m3 with filling windows).

It is observed that the spread of collection depots is not uniform. People often tend tothrow the waste anywhere along the streets and roads or in some cases brought to thedepot by the servants. From the collection points, waste is lifted by the vehicle fleet(secondary collection). The sweepers have to officially work for eight hours per day butin practice they hardly work for four hours.

Secondary collection and transportationThree types of collection system are identified for rubbish depots, open depots and

containers. They are:(1) In this system, batches are assigned to empty rubbish and open depots. A

batch comprises of a loader and four to five trucks. Each batch is assigned aspecific number of depots in an area. The loader empties the depots waste intotrucks, which take the waste to dumpsites/landfills. The depots are emptied ona daily basis or once in two days or three days or a week. All trucks aresupposed to make three full-load trips to the dumpsite in a day.

Activity % Quantity (t/d)

1 Waste generated in Kanpur (including floatingpopulation) 100 1,584

2 Waste collected by KNN 43 6813 Animal scavenging 5 79.24 Recovery and reprocessing 14 221.85 Others burning illegal dumping natural degradation

non collection, etc. 38 602

Source: Prepared by authors

Table V.Estimation for gapsbetween waste generationand collection in Kanpur

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(2) Containers are emptied by dumper-placer and refuse collectors. Adumper-placer replaces full or overloaded containers with an empty one.Dumper placers and refuse collectors make three full-load trips to the dumpsiteon an average.

(3) In areas of poor accessibility, tractors are used for collection of wastes. Depotsin such areas are manually emptied by three-five helpers (beldars) and loaded ontractors, which take the waste to dumpsites. A tractor group makes only onetrip a day, on an average.

In all the above collection systems, there are no detailed predefined collection routes.Besides the above collection, three waste streams are collected separately, viz.,construction and debris waste, slaughterhouse waste and waste from treatment plants.Besides, the silt left after the cleaning of drains (prior to monsoons) is also picked bythe municipal vehicle fleet. During this period, a number of collection vehicle fleet hasto be diverted from their regular tasks.

The prescribed working hours for collection is from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. However, theaverage working hours observed during the field studies was found to be onlythree-four hours. No record is maintained by the municipality regarding the averageworking time per vehicle.

TreatmentThere is no existing treatment/processing facility for treatment of municipal solidwaste in Kanpur. A compost plant with a capacity of 200 tons of compost per day wasset up in 1979 but the plant closed after half year of operation due to high presence ofinert materials in the waste and lack of technical and management skills.

For biomedical wastes, there are three incinerators installed in two differentgovernment hospitals, but only one is operational (of the other two, one has technical

problems and one has never been in operation). A private entrepreneur, MedicalPollution Control Committee (MPCC) established a common incinerator of capacity10 tons in 2001 at Bhaunti for collective treatment of segregated bio-medical wastesfrom various hospitals and nursing homes, against a user fee of Rs.3.50 per bed.However, it is currently running below capacity with just 500 kilograms getting treateddue to non-compliance by various medical facilities in the city to transport thegenerated waste to the centralized facility. There is no enforcement of Bio-medical(Waste Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 by the Corporation or State PollutionControl Board.

RecyclingRecycling at household level is a frugal practice in India, Kanpur being no exception. It

thrives without any support (financial or legal) by the government. Recyclables areretrieved from dump sites, collection depots or directly purchased from households,institutions, etc., segregated and sold to retailers and wholesalers. In Kanpur, aparticular section of recyclers calledJogiesalso directly sell the collected materials withsome modification for reuse.

There are no estimates as to the number of people involved in waste recycling sectorin Kanpur city or the collected quantity of recyclable waste by various actors of therecycling sector. Studies undertaken in cities of similar size put the estimate that some


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10 to 14 per cent of the waste is recycled. Field study shows the presence of small-scalewaste traders spread all over the city, especially along the highways. Interview heldwith 40 persons from recycling sector in the city shows that the average collection by awaste-picker is 38.35 kg per day while that for retailers/traders (small and medium) is

about 377.5 kg per day (Table VI).However, a sale price differential of various materials is observed in this sector and

is presented in Table VII. The Table depicts the wide variation in the selling price ofvarious materials (retrieved from wastes) among various segments of the recyclingsector. The waste pickers are clearly the ones who make least profit.

DisposalWaste collected at collection depots and transported by vehicle fleet is finally broughtto the dump sites. The city does not have any sanitary landfills so far. Waste is simplydumped at the designated sites (with or without compaction) where no soil cover is

used, no visual or environmental barriers and no provision for leachate checking exists.The following dumpsites are available for the disposal of municipal wastes at:

. Panki(16-20 acres). The site is full beyond its capacity at present and hence beenclosed (in 2003). No post site-closure measures have so far been taken.

. Krishna nagar(40-50 acre). It is the property of Ministry of Defense but was usedfor waste disposal for a number of years. It has been closed since 2001.Appropriate post-closure treatment is absent.

. Bingawan. Currently, the municipal waste is being dumped at Bingawan. Thesite is purely an open dump, adjacent to the agricultural fields at Bingawan.There is no use of soil cover or any other preventive measures to curtail thepossible environmental pollution.

Average collection Kg/day

1 Waste picker 38.252 Itinerant waste-buyers( Kabadi) 89.003 Retailers/traders 377.504 Wholesalers (paper) 2,1505 Wholesalers (scrap) 3,7676 Wholesalers (plastic) 529

Source: Field survey conducted by Authors, Kanpur, 2004

Table VI.Average collection ofwaste in Kanpur

Serial No. Type Waste paper Plastic (hard) Polypack Newspaper Glass Iron

1 Waste pickers 1.00 2.50 1.50 1.00 0.75 4.002 IWBs/kabadis 3.50 5.00 5.25 5.00 1.50 5.503 Retailers 4.00 6.00 8.50 5.75 2.00 6.004 Wholesalers 4.50 7.50 12.00 6.25 2.75 8.50

Source: Field survey conducted by authors, Kanpur, 2004

Table VII.Sale price differentialsamong various materials,Kanpur (Rs/kg)

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. Rooma (for chromium sludge). For the disposal of chromium sludge from thewaste treatment plants at Jajmau, there is a 12.4 hectare site at Rooma with noinfrastructure whatsoever to handle hazardous and toxic wastes.

. Bhauti (biomedical waste). There is a site at Bhauti for disposal of the wastecoming out from the incinerator (owned by MPCC) for treatment of bio-medicalwaste.

Besides the above official dump sites, the city is full of unofficial dump sites. Waste isoften openly burned in containers, on road sides, small dumps, etc. by the residents andalso by the municipal sweepers.

Legal aspects of MSWM related to disposal of collected/processed wastesThe Central Government introduced detailed Municipal Solid Wastes (Managementand Handling) Rules, 2000, to regulate the management and handling of the municipalsolid wastes. It details out the mandatory requirements to be followed for all the six

elements of Integrated Solid Waste Management.Schedule I of the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000

had clearly given an implementation schedule of the compliance criteria to be followedby the Municipal Authorities and is presented in Table VIII.

All or even either of the above criteria has not yet been attempted to fulfil in thestudy area of Kanpur city. The situation is same for most of the Indian cities andtowns.

The municipal authorities are further required to submit a detailed annual report onwaste management to the Secretary-in charge of the Department of UrbanDevelopment of the concerned State in case of a metropolitan city; or to the DistrictMagistrate or the Deputy Commissioner concerned in case of all other towns and cities,before 30th June every year.

The Rules however, remain silent about the financial aspects of achieving theobjectives underlined by them. There is also no attempt to integrate the informal sectorengaged in waste recycling with the formal sector as Recycling is widely accepted asthe most environment friendly method to manage wastes. This aspect is completelyignored in the Rule book. The manual also follows an open cycle for wastemanagement against the more eco-friendly closed cycle approach.

In spite of all these drawbacks, it is observed that there is a gross violation of all theprescribed rules, criteria, etc. in the study area of Kanpur city. Even with the existing

Serial No. Compliance criteria Schedule

1 Setting up of waste processing and disposal facilities By 32 December 2003 or earlier2 Monitoring the performance of waste processing and

disposal facilitiesOnce in six months

3 Improvement of existing landfill sites as perprovisions of these rules

By 31 December 2001 or earlier

4 Identification of landfill sites for future use andmaking site(s) ready for operation

By 31 December 2002 or earlier

Source:Manual on Solid Waste Management, 2000, Government of India

Table VIII.Compliance criteria for

waste processing anddisposal facilities


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financial constraints, the collection efficiency in the city can be improved, recycling ofwaste can be increased and improvised and open dumps can be technically improved.

ResultsBased on the above analysis and field observations, the following is observed:

Waste generationThe data about the most waste generating areas and along roads is not available to theauthorities. The current lifting capacity is much less as compared to the wastegenerated per day.

Primary storageThere is no source-separation of wastes at various generation points like households,institutions, commercial establishments, markets and not even hospitals. Primarystorage is done in plastic bags, containers, etc.

Primary collection. The bins are mostly in a dilapidated state so people just throw waste around the

bins (Plate 1). Peoples apathy on their role is visible in the very fact that mostpeople have a tendency to throw waste just outside their house. Collection pointsare not conveniently located.

. The surroundings of depots and containers are very dirty as heaps of garbage isseen lying all around the containers and depots (Plate 2).

Plate 1.Waste lying aroundcontainer

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. The walls and floors of the rubbish depots are mostly damaged or broken, whichmakes the lifting of waste by loader difficult. Besides, the depots becomeinaccessible during monsoons.

. The condition of open depots in the city is very poor (Plate 3). It gives a very dirtylook even immediately after the lifting of wastes (Plate 4).

. The Dumper-placer containers are not emptied regularly. Burning of wastes bythe municipal sweepers in the containers is a common practice. Thedumper-placer containers are mostly in dilapidated state.

. The Reinforced Concrete skip-containers are also in dilapidated state which leadsto littering of waste all around.

. Bins of different types have been provided in an unplanned way on stretches ofvarious roads, which basically accounts to additional cost of diesel, manpower,equipment etc.

. The prescribed working hours for the municipal sweepers is 8 hours but due to

inadequate supervision, an average sweeper works only for 4 hours.Malpractices in the form of contracting out of jobs by sweepers are alsoobserved in the city.

. The equipments given to the sweepers are inadequate. Shovels and spades arehardly available. The handcarts are usually in poor shape due to lack ofmaintenance.

. Rag-picking from the secondary storage containers and depots often result inspreading of waste outside the waste collection points leading to further littering.

Plate 2.Waste spread in and

around an open depot


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Plate 4.Waste spill over to mainroad from a rubbish depot

Plate 3.Pitiable condition of anopen depot along highway

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Secondary collection and transportation. The vehicle utilization rate of the vehicle fleet is very low, resulting in poor

collection of wastes. The average utilization rate of vehicles is just 48 per centthough experts believe that even with an average fall-out rate of 20 per cent, anoptimal utilization rate of 80 per cent can be achieved.

. Lack of supervision is observed even in secondary collection resulting in anunpredictable number of drivers on leave.

. Loaders often breakdown resulting in hampering of the work.

. Poor maintenance results in frequent breakdown of vehicles. Workshops lacksufficient budget and hence are not able to do timely repair of the vehicles.

. Deployment of vehicles and collection routes to be adopted at each depot is notcarefully planned.

. There is shortage of drivers employed.

. Only day shifts is practiced in Kanpur city, which often results in road blockages

and longer time for waste collection in busy and congested areas.. Waste transportation in open trucks result in lot of littering.

. Route planning is never prepared and is currently done as and when need arises.

. Fuel allocation to the vehicles is on a daily basis on a fixed basis. This oftenresults in malpractices by the drivers who sell the diesel for extra income. Fuelallocation is not rational and results in high expenditure on fuel costs.

. The citizens often complain that solid waste is never lifted from its place, it isobserved that the bins are full and the waste is lying for days without being liftedto the landfill site.

. Collection of waste as claimed by Kanpur Nagar Nigam is 1,266 tons per day.

Field studies however, done by ICDP in 1999-2000 show that it is only 680 tonsper day on an average. Field observations done by the authors also support thelatter as heaps of uncollected garbage is found all over the city.

TreatmentThere are no treatment facilities for the treatment of voluminous municipal waste.Reasons identified are financial constraints, lack of motivation in the Corporation,absence of private sector participation, etc. Even technologies like composting whichneeds small capital investment is not practiced. For an effective SWM, there is anurgent need to reduce the high volume of waste generated in ways which areenvironmentally sound and cost-effective.

DisposalDumping in low-lying areas is a common practice in the city. Even authorities likeKanpur Development Authority (KDA) favour it. Municipal waste is often dumped onthe orders of KDA and Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KNN) for levelling of low-lyingareas. The new bus-stand at Jhakarkatti is also built on waste-levelled site. This is notrecommended as when the biodegradable part of the wastes decomposes, the volumereduces by 60 per cent threatening the safety of the structure. Besides, the percolationof leachate also poses water contamination.


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DiscussionBased on the authors investigations and discussions with various experts in the field,the following is observed.

Need for strategic integrated solid waste management planDespite the presence of comprehensive manuals for waste management at nationallevel, the existing status of solid waste management in Kanpur city is very poor. Thereexists a plethora of problems due to which there is hardly any implementation of thevarious policies and recommendations as prescribed by the manuals. There is acomplete lack of political will and motivation on the part of Municipal Corporation inthe city. There is public apathy as well to environmental issues, including wastemanagement. Besides, the local government faces financial crunch.

There is an urgent need to appoint solid waste management expert to look foroptimal solutions for an integrated solid waste management plan of the city. Thoughthe city has Geographic Information System (GIS) based detailed spatial maps, they arehowever not used for optimal route planning and networking of collection andtransportation of waste. The existing medical doctors, who look after the job in variouscapacities, do not have the requisite expertise to solve the problem(s) in acomprehensive manner. Public participation in the form of community organizationsand NGOs and common people should be sought after while preparation of thestrategic integrated waste management plan. This would also result in rich dividendsin the form of easier implementation.

Some of the recommendations to achieve integrated solid waste management in thecity are:

. Immediate preparation of a strategic integrated waste management plan inaccordance to the waste quantity, characteristics and the socio-economic and

cultural structure of the city. Prior to preparation of the plan, there is a need to dodetailed SWOT analysis of all the possible stakeholders (SWOT is an acronymused for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of an organizationand often used in business world). This also requires formation of database onthe waste quantity, quality from various sources separately and should beregularly updated to keep a track on the achievements/obstacles.

. To improve the overall management of the Corporation and to evolve a strategyfor proper maintenance of existing vehicle fleet.

. Financial management and proper cost-accounting can solve the problems facedby implementing agency (KNN) to some extent.

. Promote awareness on waste prevention and the necessity of waste segregationat source through educational campaigns and media.

. To implement appropriate economic instruments for cost recovery to lessen theburden of municipal corporation while achieving social equity at the same time.

. Promote the development and adoption of appropriate technologies for theconversion of MSW to compost and encourage markets for its use as a soilconditioner.

. To promote indigenous technologies which are inexpensive and labor intensive.

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. To provide an enabling environment for active private sector participation in thefield of waste management.

. To convert the existing dump-sites to engineered sanitary landfill sites; regularmonitoring of air, water and land quality at the existing dump sites and theproposed landfills in future, to prevent further damage to the environment andalso to take appropriate remedial measures wherever possible to revert thedamage already done.

. To promote and support informal waste recycling sector already working in thecity in innovative ways.

Possible scenarios for effective solid waste managementThere are two possible course of action for making the existing system of solid wastemanagement more efficient, cost-effective, socially and environmentally acceptable:

(1) Centralized SWM system. This will be an improved version of the existingsystem. A Corporation with a clearly defined SWM plan as per the guidelines

laid by the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000will exist. The collection, transportation, treatment and final disposal will be allcentralized and controlled by the Municipal Corporation. Even with slightchanges in the existing team of the Corporation and good management, thingscan really improve in Kanpur. The system is easier to implement as only theexisting system has to be improvised. However, for this system to be IntegratedSWM in real terms, there is a need of high capital investment apart from theoperation and maintenance costs.

(2) Decentralized SWM system. In this type of system, the Corporation acts moreas a facilitator. It involves private sector, existing informal sector engaged inwaste recycling, NGOs/CBOs and common people for management of various

elements of ISWM. Many combinations can be tried under this system andneeds careful and detailed planning as per the socio-economic, cultural andgeographical requirements of the city. This system has the potential of beingcost-effective as well as wider implementation due to public support. Themodel has been tried successfully in small residential colonies in few cities.This system unlike the centralized system will take more time to implementas bringing consensus among all the stakeholders is a time consumingprocess.

Table IX gives a comparative analysis of the potential of above two systems in thecontext of study area-Kanpur city.

The pros and cons of the above two scenarios thus indicate that in the long term,

following a decentralized SWM system will bring better results in the system in theexisting socio-economic conditions of the study area. It needs further thoroughinvestigation and is in progress by the authors.

ConclusionIncreasing urbanization is bound to increase the amount of waste a city produces.Management of solid wastes by the government organizations has not been successfuland is rather poor in most of the Indian urban centers, including Kanpur. The amount


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of uncollected waste is most likely to increase with increasing urbanization. Among thepossible scenarios, it is clear that there are two clear options for efficient solid wastemanagement-centralized and decentralized. However, to achieve financialsustainability, socio-economic and environmental goals in the field of municipalsolid waste management, there is a need to systematically analyse the strengths andweaknesses of the community as well as the Municipal Corporation, based on which aneffective decentralized system can be evolved with the participation of various

stakeholders in Kanpur city. Sensitization of the community is also essential to achievethe above objective. The public apathy can be altered by awareness buildingcampaigns and educational measures.

We need to act and act fast as the city is already a hotbed of many contagiousdiseases, most of which are caused by ineffective waste management. To prevent anyepidemic and to make the city a healthy city-economically and environmentally, thereis an urgent need for a well-defined strategic waste management plan and a strongimplementation of the same.

Serial No. Item Centralized Decentralized

1 Capital High Low to medium2 Labour cost High Cheap

3 Public participation Low-medium High-very high4 Collection cost High Low5 Transfer and transportation

costHigh Less

6 Treatment and Processingcost

High Low to medium

7 Landfill cost High Minimum8 Public awareness Low-medium High9 Public-private partnership Low-medium Strong

10 Informal sector participation Weak Strong11 Success rate of various SW

treatment technologiesIncineration Failure in most places;

successful with highenvironmental costs

Not required

Centralized composting FailureDecentralized compostingand windrow composting

Successful (mixed results infew places)

Biomethanisation Experimental stages Not requiredFormal materials recoveryfacilities(MRFs)

Required Not required

Informal recycling Absent Strong12 Role of NGOs/CBOs Weak-medium Strong13 Role of Government Executing agency Facilitator14 Cost recovery Low-medium Medium-high15 Stipulated outcome Successful with high capital

costsSuccessful with low capitalcosts

Table IX.Comparative analysis ofcentralized anddecentralized SWMsystem

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References

CPCB (1997),State of Environment of Kanpur, Internal Report, Internal Report, Central PollutionControl Board.

Hoornweg, D.L.T. and Verma, K. (1999), What a Waste, Solid Waste Management in Asia,

World Bank, Urban Development Sector Unit, East Asia and Pacific Region.

ICDP-Phase 1 (1996), Solid Waste Management in Kanpur and Mirzapur, Technical Report 13,Institutional and Community Development Project.

ICDP-Phase 2 (2001), Bio-medical Waste Management in Kanpur, Institutional and CommunityDevelopment Project.

ICDP-Phase 2 (2001),Solid Waste Management in Kanpur, Technical Report 27, Institutional andCommunity Development Project.

Kalubarme, M.H., Baldev, S. and Avarani, S. (1985), Mapping and change detection in urbanlanduse of Surat City,Proceedings of VI Asian Conference on Remote Sensing, pp. 103-8.

Kanpur Nagar Nigam (n.d.), Municipal Report, various years, Kanpur Nagar Nigam.

McDougall, F.R., White, P.R., Franke, M. and Hindle, P. (2001), Integrated Solid Waste

Management: A Lifecycle Inventory, Blackwell Science, London.Robinson, W.D. (1986), The Solid Waste Handbook: A Practical Guide, John Wiley & Sons,

Chichester.

Srivastava, G.P. (2002), New dimensions of labour absorption and income generation in anurban economy: a case study of selected units of waste recycle industry, unpublished PhDthesis, CSJM University, Kanpur.

World Resource Foundation (1996), So what is integrated waste management?, WarmerBulleting: Journal of the World Resource Foundation, No. 49.

Further reading

Gomti River Pollution Control Project (1996), Engineering and environmental management

options, Lucknow.MOUDPA (2000), Manual on Municipal Solid Waste Management, Ministry of Urban

Development and Poverty Alleviation, Government of India Publications, New Delhi.

NEERI (1996), Strategy Paper on Solid Waste Management in India, National EnvironmentalEngineering Research Institute, Nagpur.

Vishvanathan, S. (2000), Health: semiotics of waste, Survey of the Environment, The Hindu ,pp. 95-101.

www.ecofriends.org/reports.htm.

AppendixAbbreviations

GAP Ganga Action Plan

ICDP Institutional and Community Development Project

IWB Itinerant Waste Buyers (Kabadi)

ISWM Integrated Solid Waste Management

KDA Kanpur Nagar Nigam

MPCC Medical Pollution Control Committee

MSWM Municipal Solid Waste Management


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About the authorsHina Zia is an architect-planner. She is currently pursuing her research on Integrated SolidWaste Management in a metropolitan city. Her areas of interest include infrastructure planning,urban planning, rural development, energy management, ecology, sustainable development, etc.

She is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected] V. Devadas is an associate professor in the Department of Architecture and Planning. Heis MA (Eco.), MA (Rural Development), MPhil (Micro Level Planning) and PhD (Planning). Hisareas of interest include: urban and rural development planning; urban renewal; housing;infrastructure; capacity building; sustainable development; natural resource planning andmanagement; renewable energy planning and management; land use planning; tourism; inlandwaterways and transportation.

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