International Journal of Waste Resources

Abstract

A Comparative Study of Municipal Solid Waste Management Status for Three Major Towns of Upper Assam-India

Moharana Choudhury and Joystu Dutta

Waste is a major problem for the countries and cities of developing country like India. This present study is carried out to understand the present scenario of waste management status of three major towns of Assam state namely Jorhat, Tezpur and Dibrugarh. A comparative analysis is carried out on the basis of municipal solid waste generation in these three prominent municipalities of Upper Assam. During the present study it is estimated that Tezpur town produces around 28 MT of waste, Jorhat Town produces 35 MT of waste and Dibrugarh Town produces 75 MT of waste respectively. All the three Municipalities are facing problem for disposal of waste as the open dumping ground is affecting the people and environment around the site. Dibrugarh town waste management is more critical compare to others as because of the open air dumping system since 25 years as well as proximity to river Brahmaputra dike area which is unsuitable and unscientific for dumping process. The intermixing of waste with riparian ecosystem leads to further complications and far-reaching consequences. There is a good scope of Biogas production and vermicompost generation from waste dumping areas because in average almost 90% waste is bio-degradable. There is immediate need of advanced technical measures to handle the waste management in these towns further.