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| Dwelling |
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| Human settlements in the form of cluster of housing units have always been a source of pollution. Because, human beings generate large quantity of wastes during the course of their daily activities. |
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| Activities like washing, cleaning, bathing, food preparation, as well as sanitary activities (like excretion) generate large quantities of solid, liquid and gaseous wastes. All these wastes are sources of pollution for the environment around human settlements. |
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| Man is the only animal - who generates such a large quantities of wastes compared to any other animal in world. All other animals generate the wastes from their bodies and therefore they are degradable. Moreover, the animals do not live in such a large congregation as human beings live. Hence, their wastes are naturally spread over. |
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| In contrast, human beings live in large numbers in one place. They also generate large quantities of solid and liquid wastes - which are not easily decomposable. These characteristics make the pollution due to human settlements more acute and difficult to manage. |
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| The problems due to pollution by human settlements is acute in cities where density of population is very high. Some cities in our country have a density of population in the range of 5000 to 7000 per sq.km as compared to national average of 738/sq.km |
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| Mainly, the pollution due to human settlements are in the form of |
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 urban sewage generation - large quantity of sanitary wastes generated in households. It contains solid wastes like sludge and liquid wastes called sewage water. |
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 Solid wastes - generated out of daily human activities. For e.g., sweepings, packings, unused solid materials paper / plastic wastes etc,. |
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 Drain water wastes - Water collected in drains either during excessive rains or by various human activities like bathing and cleaning. |
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 Dust - It forms major component of air pollution. Dust can be generated out of daily human activities. |
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| The extent of generation of above wastes from cities is so large that most of Indian cities have not been able to manage them. Civic authorities in Indian cities have been struggling hard to manage these wastes in the form of programmes like |
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| a) underground drainage system to handle sewage |
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| b) collection of solid wastes |
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| c) conversion of wastes into manures or fuel |
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| d) safe disposal of liquid wastes. |
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