Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Reconstruction Mission (JNNURM), 45 solid waste management (SWM) projects at a cost of Rs 2,086 crore and 70 projects of Rs 409 crore have been approved so far in different states by the Urban Development Ministry, Government of India. JUNNURM has listed 65 mission cities for financial assistance for urban development in the country.

“These projects are in the different stages of implementation,” Union Minister of State for Urban Development Saugata Roy said in Mysore on Monday, highlighting the efforts of the government to tackle the SWM problem in urban India.

We Indians have got so used to seeing garbage spilling over from municipal dustbins at street corners and often even strewn around in open public spaces, that we accept this phenomenon as inevitable. We look the other way with what seems like futile hope that some day, someone will find a solution to our problem and rid us of this major health hazard of urban living in India.

The integrated solid waste management project in Kanpur offers hope. Located on the western bank of the Ganga, Kanpur is an important industrial city of Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in India. With a population of 36 lakh (3.6 million) and a total area of 260 sq kilometres,

Of late, the civic bodies are firm on having a decentralised policy to reduce waste reaching the dumping grounds and the landfill sites.
At source:A plant to treat biodegradable waste in Kozhikode. Such decentralised facilities have become imperative now.

The accumulation of solid waste in cities and towns offers a scary prospect.

While municipal councils have foiled several attempts of the High Court to get them to attend to the garbage problem in their respective jurisdictions in the last two years, the High Court on Wednesday contemplated imposing fine on defaulting civic bodies would work as deterrent.