Swachh Survekshan No scientific processing of waste reason for ‘No Star’ to Nagpur
| Date :15-Jan-2024 |
By Kaushik Bhattacharya
Lack of scientific processing of waste, lack of scientific land filling, absence of construction and demolition management are the main reasons behind ‘No Star’ for Nagpur city in the Star Rating of Garbage Free City (GFC) category in Swachh Survekshan 2023 (SS2023). Nagpur, which performed better this year in Swachh Survekshan 2023, by taking a 38 ranks jump in the ‘One Lakh and Above Population’ category, has failed to get any ‘Star’ in the Star Rating. It is the fifth time when Nagpur has failed to score any ‘Star’ in GFC category. According to experts, failing to score any ‘Star’ rating in SS2023, is the main reason behind Nagpur scoring 86th Rank in the survey. Otherwise, Nagpur would score much better rank in this SS2023. Every city will be rated as 1, 3, 5 and 7 Star Rating based on compliance with protocol conditions specified for each of rating. Door-to-door garbage collection; source segregation; sweeping; scientific processing of waste; bulk generator compliance; scientific land filling; construction and demolition management; plastic waste management; dump remediation and citizen grievance redressal system etc are the major criteria that require to score Star Ratings. Meanwhile, Nagpur failed to fulfil the criteria to score Star Rating in GFC.
Patna, Kanpur, and Aurangabad performed better this year than Nagpur in ranking. Patna in Bihar, and Aurangabad in Maharashtra scored ‘1 Star’ rating each this year, and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, scored ‘3 Star’ rating in SS2023. Whereas, Nagpur scored ‘Zero’ in Star Rating in GFC category. This is the main reason behind Nagpur’s poor performance in ranking whereas Patna scored 77th rank, Aurangabad scored 61st rank and Kanpur bagged 74th rank in SS2023. If one compares the overall performance of these three cities with Nagpur in the report card, then one can see that Nagpur performed better in almost every category mentioned in the report card. But, the ‘Zero’ marks in Garbage Free Cities category once again cut down the ranking of the Orange City. “We applied for 3-Star rating this year in GFC category. Inspection was conducted in the month of December and once again we failed to score any Star in GFC,” Dr Gajendra Mahalle, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Solid Waste Management (Cleanliness and Garbage Collection), NMC told ‘The Hitavada’.
In the Report Card, Nagpur scored 100% marks each in ‘Source Segregation of Solid Waste’ and ‘Cleanliness of Water Bodies’ categories. Whereas, the city scored 99% each in ‘Cleanliness of Residential Areas’ and ‘Cleanliness of Market Areas’ categories. Whereas, Patna scored 28% in ‘Source Segregation of Solid Waste’ category and Kanpur scored only 1% in the same category. Nagpur also scored more percentage than Patna and Kanpur cities in ‘Waste Generation vs Processing’ category. Similarly, Aurangabad scored ‘Zero’ percentage in ‘Remediation of Dump Sites’ whereas Nagpur scored 77% in this category. In ‘Remediation of Dump Sites’ category, Patna also scored just 40% marks, but Kanpur scored better than Nagpur in this category with 91%. “There are three different inspections that take place -- Swachh Survekshan , Water Plus Plus, and Star Rating. Nagpur performed well in Swachh Survekshan and Water Plus Plus inspections this year but failed to score any ‘Star’ in the third inspection which caused poor ranking than Chandrapur and Wardha,” said Dr Mahalle.
“We are going to start solid waste processing and the C&D waste processing plants soon this year. This will help us to score marks in star rating in GFC,” said Dr Mahalle. “The 3 star rating would have given 725 marks to Nagpur, however for getting said marks, one needs to qualify on many sub-parameters. If the city doesn’t qualify for a single sub-parameter, then it automatically gets zero,” said Surbhi Jaiswal, Team Lead, Green Vigil Foundation. “One positive take from this year’s result is Nagpur got Water+, which qualifies Nagpur for next year for 7 star GFC rating which can fetch 1,375 marks in Swachh Survekshan. If so, then Nagpur will surely be in first 20 rank,” said Jaiswal.