Why Delhi cannot plan its ‘new towns’: The case of solid waste management in Noida

Abstract

a b s t r a c tIndian metropolises have witnessed the growth of 'new towns' on their peripheries over the past two decades, which have attracted investment as well as affluent residents. Most research on new towns examines the contentious politics of land acquisition and development, but less is known about urban governance and everyday life. This article focuses on solid waste management in Noida, a new town on the periphery of Delhi that has been unable to develop a large-scale waste management system, and we have two main foci. First, we show that the municipal government has sought to regulate waste collection, while waste processing and disposal have remained unregulated and this has discouraged the entry of medium and large-scale private enterprises. Second, we explore the contentious politics surrounding actually existing waste management practices that have emerged in the absence of significant public or private investment. Most waste is managed by small-and medium-sized enterprises in the informal sector, so associations that represent the so-called 'new' middle class must interact with informal-sector waste workers. These interactions result in moderately high levels of waste collection but waste disposal remains haphazard and this exposes the limits of the new middle class' control over urban space. Ultimately, we show how municipal governance and the actually existing politics and practices of waste management contribute to the production of Noida's socio-spatial landscape.

Flows, system boundaries and the politics of urban metabolism: Waste management in Mexico City and Santiago de Chile

“…The local governance system (political, legal and administrative frameworks) shapes how waste management services are run (UN-Habitat, 2010). For example, waste management systems are shaped by social and institutional relations including: political interests and clientelism, public administration changes and their timeframes, financial pressures and funding sources, public opinion, relationship between stakeholders (such as existing collaboration, or ongoing conflicts), and the governance capacity of local authorities (Ali, Olley, & Cotton, 1999;Bhuiyan, 2010;Castillo Berthier, 2003;Ezeah, Fazakerley, & Roberts, 2013;Schindler & Kishore, 2015;Sembiring & Nitivattananon, 2010). Looking at the case of Mexico, Castillo Berthier (2003) highlights how relations of patronage ('clientelism') and the rule of local leaders or 'caciques' play a defining role in waste management services.…”

Failed Fantasies in a South African Context: the Case of Modderfontein, Johannesburg

“…Large-scale or edge city developments are a global phenomenon, and are of significant consequence for understanding issues of inequality in cities because they challenge existing governance-often operating outside planning in an extra-territorial manner or in a way where planning is privatised (Shatkin 2011;Murray 2015;Schindler and Kishore 2015;Swyngedouw et al 2002). Moreover, in some places, such as India, they receive disproportionate amounts of investment (Shaw 2012), since they are part of 'world class city dreams' (Schindler and Kishore 2015), warranting further analysis of their consequences.…”

“…Large-scale or edge city developments are a global phenomenon, and are of significant consequence for understanding issues of inequality in cities because they challenge existing governance-often operating outside planning in an extra-territorial manner or in a way where planning is privatised (Shatkin 2011;Murray 2015;Schindler and Kishore 2015;Swyngedouw et al 2002). Moreover, in some places, such as India, they receive disproportionate amounts of investment (Shaw 2012), since they are part of 'world class city dreams' (Schindler and Kishore 2015), warranting further analysis of their consequences. However, while large scale developments, and specifically edge city developments, are being built throughout the world (Adama 2018;Ballard et al 2017;Carmody and Owusu 2016;Das 2015;Grant 2015;Shatkin 2008), their development in African contexts has raised a particular set of questions about the consequences of such an elite-led approach to urban growth, especially in terms of equitable development and environmental impacts.…”

Women hawkers in Tehran’s metro: everyday politics and the production of public space

“…This has left many urban residents unable to sell their labour power for a wage, and as a result they remain outside of imagined communities whose membership has historically been tied to production (Sanyal, 2007;Li, 2010;Davis, 2007;Ferguson, 2015). While some places are aggressively transformed into 'world-class' post-industrial spaces for productive and affluent residents to live and consume, large swaths of territory are informally planned and more or less devoid of public services such as piped water, sewerage and waste collection (Roy and Alsayyad, 2004;Gandy, 2004;Fernandez, 2014;Schindler and Kishore, 2015). Inequality has been indelibly etched into fragmented cityscapes as 'world-class' spaces of luxury living and consumption are interwoven with informal settlements (Graham and Marvin, 2001), and in many cities it is not entirely clear which 'type' of space will ultimately represent the city.…”