Assessment of solid waste management practices: Study of Burdwan Town, West Bengal

Pile of urban solid waste is one of the worst consequences of rapid urbanization especially in developing countries and managing them is even bigger a problem here. Being an old city, Burdwan town of Purba Burdwan district of West Bengal is no exception. Due to the infrastructural drawback, inefficient planning and policy action, and negligence from the citizens and the municipal waste workers, in almost every ward of the Municipality, one can find waste dumping along the road and drainage sides. This not only hinders aesthetics but appears to be a breeding ground for all unhygienic diseases, air pollution, and water pollution which makes the children suffer most. In such a severe condition, this paper tries to seek the status of the municipal waste management practices, the reasons behind its current scenario and suggests some infrastructural boosts to optimize the waste-stagnated situation through GIS Network Analysis techniques for this study, both the primary and secondary data were used via different methods of questionnaire surveying and data provided by the Municipal authority respectively. We tried to capture the perceptions from all the stakeholders involved and finally, the conflicting words from all the parties have brought an outcome.