GVMC Chief bats for collective effort to achieve better rank in Visakhapatnam

GVMC Chief bats for collective effort to achieve better rank  in Visakhapatnam
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The GVMC is getting prepared for the Swachh Survekshan 2020, the process of which will commence in January for the last quarter of the year.

Visakhapatnam: The GVMC is getting prepared for the Swachh Survekshan 2020, the process of which will commence in January for the last quarter of the year.

Making it clear that the parameters involved in Swachh Survekshan go beyond sweeping the streets and collecting door-to-door waste from households, Municipal Commissioner G Srijana calls for collective effort from the stakeholders to cooperate and extend support to achieve desirable result.

"Though efforts are on to sensitise residents of various neighbourhoods and those running commercial outlets on segregation at source and other parameters, there is a need to focus on the larger picture and work in tandem with civic bodies to ensure the city stands out in the ranking," she said.

With several factors that get into the survey, the Municipal Commissioner said that she was open to suggestions from various quarters in order to share best practices. "Ever since the inception of ranking exercise, a lot has been changed over the years and the participation of urban local bodies (ULBs) have considerably gone up," she informed.

From 73 cities in 2016 to 434 in 2017, 4,203 in 2018 to 4,237 cities in 2019, the number of cities taking part in Swachh Survekshan has increased to 4,440 in 2020. "Though we scored well in terms of open defecation-free (ODF), ODF+ (including open urination-free) and ODF++ (cities that have faecal sludge treatment plant) along with other parameters last time, improved citizen involvement is required to get a better ranking.

The need of hour is bringing in behavioural change among denizens and encourage them to segregate at source (wet, dry and hazardous waste) and work in tandem with the corporation for getting better results," Srijana said.

Though a faecal sludge treatment plant has already been readied at Anakapalle, she said another plant is coming up in Bheemunipatnam. "This apart, a waste-to-energy plant is going to be operational in another six months at Kapuluppada. It would generate 15-megawatt power," she shared with media.

Calling for concerted effort for waste management, she said steps will be taken to make people stop dumping waste on roads. "Our appeal to all the residents is to wait till 7:30 am for the sanitation workers to collect the garbage," she mentioned.

As part of Swachh Survekshan survey methodology, she added that collection of waste and transportation along with ODF carry 30 percentage weightage and processing and disposal carries 25 percentage weightage.

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