Habitat International 32 (2008) 58–73 Urban solid waste management in Kanpur: Opportunities and perspectives Hina Zia à , V. Devadas Department of Architecture & Planning, Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee, District Haridwar, Roorkee 247 667, India Abstract 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. Kanpur is one such metropolitan city of North India, having an inefficient, outdated and unscientific waste management system.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 Kanpur 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 non- technical manner. This paper systematically assesses the obstacles in the existing solid waste management system in Kanpur city and also tries to assess the potentials for its improvisation. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Waste management system; Obstacles; Potentials Introduction India has, in the past two decades, become a potential economic world leader and is experiencing a steady economic growth. This increased growth has led to increasing consumerism, especially in the urban sector. This is fast leading to depletion of natural resources and poses a significant challenge to the country’s sustainable and ecological development. Indian cities generate an estimated 0.115 million metric tonnes of waste per day and 42 million metric tonnes annually (3iNetwork, 2006). The per capita waste generation ranges between 0.2 and 0.6 kg per day in the Indian cities that is lower than that in developed countries. However, lifestyle changes due to economic growth and fast rates of urbanization have resulted in per capita waste generation increasing by about 1.3% per year. The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) has estimated that waste generation will exceed 260 million tones per year by the year 2047—more than five times the present level (3iNetwork, 2006). It is observed that bigger the size of the city (population and density wise), greater is the quantity of waste generated. This is the phenomenon observed world over and India is no exception to this. Cities with ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/habitatint 0197-3975/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.habitatint.2007.08.001 à Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9412021124. E-mail address: hinazia@rediffmail.com (H. Zia).