ISAS Working Papers

This paper draws attention to two signature campaigns of the Bharatiya Janata Party government in India – Smart Cities and Swachh Bharat (Clean India) and identifies difficulties facing the task of making smart cities clean. The paper begins by focusing on the under-powering of local governments, which are expected to provide many of the services that public-sanitation regulations prescribe. The paper then examines four formal categories of waste – the solid waste of households and businesses, construction and demolition (C&D), hazardous and bio-medical. All four categories are governed by admirable – but hitherto unattainable – rules spelt out by the central government and intended to ensure safe and productive disposal. In the final section, the paper examines the most difficult category of all – liquid waste and sewage. Sewage presents immense public-health threats, yet its disposal raises formidable cultural problems. The paper offers no panaceas but provides a digest of the complexities of urban waste management and government’s worthy pronouncements.