Municipal solid waste management in Bhubaneswar, India – A review

In view of fast paced economic growth accompanied with rapid urbanisation, management of municipal solid waste has emerged as one of the major environmental challenges of present times. Indian cities are often characterized by poorly rendered services including waste management-the most ignored of all basic services, on account of various reasons. The situation worsens with increasing population pressure in urban centers. Bhubaneswar is one such city of Eastern India, having an inefficient, outdated and unscientific waste management system. This paper attempts to assess the existing state of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in Bhubaneswar city with the aim of identifying the main obstacles to its efficiency and the prospects for improvisation of the solid waste management system in the city. The existing solid waste management system in the city is found to be highly inefficient. Primary and secondary collection, transportation and open dumping are the only activities practiced that too in a nontechnical manner. This paper systematically assesses the obstacles in the existing solid waste management system in Bhubaneswar city and also tries to assess the potentials for its improvisation. Keywords-Municipal Solid Waste Management, Collection, Tranportation, Dumping