Madhya Pradesh's Indore has yet again made itIndia's cleanest city in the nationwide annual cleanliness survey. Indore wasdeclared India's cleanest city for the fifth time in a row by the centralgovernment on Saturday. Surat (Gujarat) and Vijaywada (Andhra Pradesh) wereconferred the titles of the country’s second and third cleanest cities,respectively.
Indore has been adjudged the cleanest city ofIndia consecutively for five years by the urban development ministry. Withnearly 3 million people, Indore is the largest and most populated city in thestate and faces typical urban challenges like pollution, traffic chaos andwaste disposal issues. Ideally, a city is deemed to be genuinely clean if itfulfills the following five parameters:
1. 100%sewerage system with total recycling of treated sewage preferably forirrigation
2. 100%solid waste management system with total recycling of waste products
3. Effectivedrainage system coupled with water harvesting of rainfall run-off;
4. Pavingor grassing of raw surfaces between road edges and building lines;
5. Dailysweeping of roads and streets ensuring zero spread of solid waste.
Indore fulfils all these essential parameterswith a percentage varying 80-95. Here are some measures adopted by Indoreto make it the cleanest city of India:
Concrete Waste Segregation System: Joint visit ofmunicipal officials and public representatives to persuade citizens tosegregate waste at home. There was one instance in which an official himselfsegregated waste from the dustbin of a citizen, who had refused to segregatewaste despite multiple requests. This led to huge embarrassment, and not onlychanged the behaviour of that one household but also had a cascading impact onothers.
Free distribution of dustbins: The municipalcorporation earlier had garbage bins placed across the city and expectedresidents to throw wastes in the colour-coded boxes. It did not work. Theydistributed free dustbins in wards/households, wherever there was highresistance by citizens.
Discouraging Use of Polythene: Polythene isconsidered as a big reason for litter. People of Indore made a shift in theirpolythene using habits discouraging its use. Shopkeepers, too, started usingpolythene bags of permissible thickness.
Also read: Swachh Survekshan 2021 award: Indore bags the title of India's cleanest city for 5th time in a row
Awareness among Children: Teachers in schoolsand parents at home made it a point to make their wards aware of the dangers oflittering. Children living in Indore have become so aware now that if an elderperson is seen throwing garbage on the streets, the kids try to discipline them.
Encouraged water harvesting: A systematiccampaign of providing water harvesting units in individual houses andinstitutional areas was launched and 15,000 households installed waterharvesting units so far and monitoring of these units is done digitally by thecontrol room during rainy days.
Dustbin on the Wheels: This was a novelidea to keep a check on litter. People started carrying small dustbins in theircars so that they don't throw their wastes on the streets. Those who chew paan andgutka are seen carrying similar bins in their vehicles.
Other states should also get motivated fromIndore as it has set an example for all. With proper management, any city canachieve the number one spot on the list.