Swachh Survekshan 2017: How Indore Becoming India’s Cleanest City Reaffirms Madhya Pradesh As A Model State

Indore emerged as the winner in the survey of 434 cities in Swachh Survekshan 2017, the Union government’s annual report card which ranks cities based on their cleanliness level and other aspects of sanitation. The results announced today by Venkaiah Naidu, the Minister of Urban Development (MoUD), Indore in Madhya Pradesh replaced last year’s winner Mysuru as India’s cleanest city. Indore which was ranked 25 in last year’s Swachh Survekshan jumped a remarkable 24 places to top the list. Mysuru slipped to 5th in this year’s rankings, indicating a drop in its performance. Here’s how Indore made it to the top.

A Toilet Building Overdrive

The Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) conducted a speedy and effective toilet building campaign all across the city. A year ago toilets were absent in more than 15,000 households in the city. Within a span of a year, the municipal corporation built 12,549 individual toilets, 200 urinals and 190 public toilets to provide extensive sanitation coverage in the city. The effort of the municipal corporation resulted in improvement in Indore’s sanitation condition and it was declared open defecation free in January 2017 by the Prime Minister’s Office.

The Indore Municipal Corporation has built several public toilets in the city

A Concrete Waste Segregation System

Indore’s success lies in not just building toilets but also maintaining a stable and well-functioning garbage collection system. Mobile garbage collection vans were introduced by the municipal corporation and did the rounds of the residential colonies every morning for people to directly dispose garbage into the vans. This ensured proper collection of waste by the municipality. The civic body also constructed compost pits at some of Indore’s largest vegetable markets which resulted in vegetable waste being efficiently turned into manure. Waste segregation, which is one of Swachh Bharat Mission’s primary agenda has also been prioritised by the municipal corporation. Large number of colour coded dustbins for segregation of dry and wet waste have been installed all around Indore for people to dispose of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste separately.

Indore Municipal Corporation has set up a Plastic Collection Centre

The city generates 50,000 kilos of municipal waste every day, out of which 13,000 kilos is plastic waste. To tackle Indore’s waste problem the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) set up a Plastic Collection Centre. Within four months, the plastic pollution levels in the city came down to 80 microgram per cubic metre from 140 microgram per cubic metre.

Adopting Unique Awareness Methods

The IMC understood the importance of involving people in tackling this issue and adopted unique methods to create awareness on sanitation and waste management. From paintings and murals on walls to arranging for skits and plays on Swachh Bharat, the civic body constantly made efforts to momentum going when it came to awareness initiatives.

The civic body also adopted unique campaigns such as the ‘Roko-Toko’ initiative, under which groups of school children would start beating metal boxes loudly if they came across anyone defecating in the open.

Such initiatives have worked well for Indore in improving its cleanliness rank among cities to top the Swachh Survekshan 2017.

In a series of tweets, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that the ranking reaffirmed his government’s commitment to make Madhya Pradesh a ‘model state’ in terms of cleanliness and sanitation.

Swachh Survekshan-2017 Awards reaffirm our commitment to make MP as model state in India for cleanliness, sanitation and waste management practices, Chief Minister Chouhan said in a tweet.

Citizens of Indore and Bhopal you have made us proud. You have made your cities the cleanest and best in the entire country, he further tweeted.

Also Read: India’s Cleanest Cities In Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh: 10 Facts