Authors

• Liju Mathew, Urban & Regional Development Advisor, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), India
• Vaishali Nandan, Senior Advisor and CSC Project Head, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), India

The Indian construction industry has seen tremendous growth in recent years and this has resulted in generation of huge quantities of construction and demolition (C&D) waste. With rapid urbanisation there has been tremendous change in the cities landuse and now they are battling with the issue of urban flooding. C&D waste has become one of the major cause for this urban issue. The waste dumped in unauthorised places finds its place in drains and water bodies and thus choking them. Increasing land prices and housing demand have also led to usage of C&D waste for filling up low-lying areas that once used to be water retention areas. Cities lack in the actual quantification of the amount of C&D waste being generated in their city. This paper looks at the existing C&D waste management system in the city of Bhubaneswar in India which is facing the impact of urban flooding since the last few years. Many Indian cities have similar issue arising due to rapid urbanisation and thus it’s a national issue. This paper attempts to identify gaps in the existing C&D waste management system in cities which leads to its leakage in the environment. Various stakeholder consultations and ground survey has been conducted for this study. This paper also provides some recommendations on how this issue can be prevented by proper C&D waste management.