Chakraborty, et. al.

scarce natural resources and producing wastes in form of solid, liquid and gasses

as the bi-product’. As development is needed the society cannot be able to either

close the use of them or manufacture these valuable resources. Among the other

natural resources water is one of the major valuable resource of the day. Fresh

natural water is used in every segment of life from household to industry, business

to agriculture and produce wastewater as bi-product, management of which has

become a severe problem. It was estimated by the United Nations in 1997 that

about 1.1 billion people in the world have lack of clean water and 2.2 million

children under five die each year due to contaminated water borne diseases. They

also estimated that two thirds of world population would be affected by water

shortages by 2025 (Sos-arsenic.net).

So the management of wastewater is an important way towards upholding the

people as well as whole ecology. Keeping in view the potentiality, the wastewater

may be considered as a resource. Recycling of wastewater may be able to serve

the both purposes i.e. management and resource recovery. In view of the above,

an effort has been made in this study to critically examine the status of wastewater

generation in urban India, its possibility of management through recycling with a

special attention to Kolkata.

Data Base and Methodology

The present study has been conducted based on both secondary as well as primary

data. The secondary source includes government publications, publications by

NGOs and other relevant published sources. The primary data has been collected

from different wastefed fisheries include Banhooghly Fishermen’s Co-operative

Society Limited, Kolkata, West Bengal.

Table 1: Decadal trend of urbanization in India

Decadal growth of population of India (%)

Sl. No.

Year

Urban

Overall

1.

1961

17.97

21.64

2.

1971

19.91

24.80

3.

1981

23.34

24.66

4.

1991

25.71

23.86

5.

2001

27.78

21.34

Source: censusindia.net

Results and Discussion

Cities in many parts of the developing world are growing at twice the rate of overall

population growth. Every day 1.6 million people in the world are migrating from

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