Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is launching for the first time in decades a massive Sabarmati river clean-up campaign involving around 20,000 people on the World Environment Day on Wednesday. Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra told reporters on Tuesday that the five-day Swachh Sabarmati Maha Abhiyan would be kicked off by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani at Subhash Bridge. He said, “We had invited people’s voluntary participation in the effort on the first day of the campaign. But looking at the overwhelming response, it will be for five days till June 9.”
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The Municipal Commissioner added,
Against the expectation of some 200 to 300 people, we have received an overwhelming response from some 10,000 to 20,000 people during the last 8-10 days.
Mr. Nehra said that the AMC had contacted religious, social and industry associations and invited them to participate.
We have made elaborate planning and made arrangements to deploy sufficient equipment and machinery.
The clean-up drive will be taken in the stretch between Subhash Bridge and Dadhichi Bridge on the first day. The AMC has made arrangements to provide drinking water, buttermilk and medical assistance at 10 points on the entire stretch in view of the hot weather.
Mr. Nehra said that the campaign had started by first flushing out the water in the river to the downstream area by opening the gates of Vasna barrage and also by deploying heavy-duty pumps to clear dead water.
He said that the AMC had diverted wastewater lines and prevented dumping of waste in the Sabarmati on a permanent basis. He added,
Garbage collection drive is the final phase of Swachh Sabarmati Maha Abhiyan, which marks the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
