BHOPAL: Preventing sewage contamination in potable water, strengthening door-to-door waste collection, garbage segregation and processing and regular sweeping in market areas are among a few steps that Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) thinks will help it in improving its ranking in Swachhata Survekshan.
Also there will be a great focus on public awareness as the citizen feedback. The municipal body thus will pay special attention towards engaging the public and ensuring their participation.
The state capital has fared well in the cleanliness survey 2020 by obtaining 7th rank in India, which is an improvement compared to last year’s survey results. It was ranked 19th last year. The civic body now is geared up to match Indore’s performance and is eyeing the number 1 title in the next survey.
The civic body has started focusing on new sewage treatment plants (STP) to ensure the water bodies remain clean. Ten new STP’s will soon start their operations. The BMC has to address the issue of road sweeping and sanitation around big markets. The sanitation workers would sweep the roads thrice a day during the survey, but the frequency has now reduced to once and hardly twice. The condition of the busy commercial areas and markers is far from okay.
However, the bigger challenge is ensuring door-to-door waste collection. The city has 450 waste collection vehicles which are expected to visit every household, however, this is not happening. There are frequent complaints of the irregular visits of the garbage collection vehicle. Besides, the issue of door-t-door waste collection, the waste segregation –dry and wet- at source and also at the transfer station is a milestone to be achieved. The BMC officials are confident that they will be able to address these issues and improve its ranking in the next survey.
At present the STP’s in Bhopal belong to BMC, Public health engineering department (PHED) and BHEL. Construction of Ten other STP’s are underway and the one at Mahol Daamkheda is set to start its operations.
The administration also has to ensure cleaning of water bodies and reservoirs as the cleanliness survey team had visited Motia Lake only to find it filthy. Reuse and recycling of collected waste too is to be given equal importance.
BMC commissioner KVS Chowdhary Kolsani said the plan to make Bhopal the cleanest city is prepared and we will focus on STP’s and other projects and will also strengthen the door-to-door waste collection process.
