07-04-2009, 10:58 PM
In early times, the disposal of human and other wastes did not pose a significant problem, for the population was small and the amount of land available for the assimilation of wastes was large .Now due to rapid population growth and economic development in the country-Solid waste disposal has become a major environmental issue in India. Solid waste, often called the third pollution after air and water pollution, is that material which arises from various human activities and which is normally discarded as useless or unwanted it consists of the highly heterogeneous mass of discarded materials from the urban community as well as the more homogeneous accumulation of agricultural, industrial and mining wastes. In India authentic information regarding the composition of urban waste is not generally available,as regular analysis of the refuse is not carried out by the munipalities. Infact, refuse very heterogeneous in composition, and the geographical, temporal and seasonal variations in its composition make it difficult to define²typical refuse. The main constituents of urban wastes are similar through out the world, but the weight generated, the density and the proportion of constituents vary widely from country to country and from town to town with in a country according to level of economic development, geographic location, weather and social conditions. Similary the density of refuse in India is much higher than that of refuse generated in the cities of Western countries because of inclusion in it of the street sweepings.MSW in cities is collected and transported to designated disposal sites, which are normally low lying areas on out-skirts of the city. Open dumping of garbage facilitates the breeding for disease vectors such as flies,mosquitoes,rats and other pests. The municipalities in India therefore face the challenge of reinforcing their available infrastructure for efficient municipal solid waste management and ensuring the scientific disposal of MSW by generating enough revenues either from generators or by identifying activities that generate resources from waste management.
