Swachh Survekshan 2020 Results: With Prime Focus On Waste Management, New Delhi Municipal Council Becomes The ‘Cleanest Capital City’

New Delhi: Keeping up its cleanliness quotient with a special focus on waste management, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), one of the four municipalities of the national capital Delhi, is the ‘Cleanest Capital City’ in Swachh Survekshan 2020‘s population between one and 10 lakh category. In a virtual award ceremony titled ‘Swachh Mahotsav’ organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, NDMC Chairman Dharmendra received the national award.

Also Read: Swachh Survekshan 2020: Indore Continues Its Winning Streak, Is India’s Cleanest City Again; Here’s The List Of Winners

NDMC was declared as the CLEANEST CAPITAL CITY amongst all states and UTs in India in Swacch Survekshan 2020 in the event organized by MoHUA .Chairman,NDMC received this National award from H’ble MInister, MoHUA ,on behalf of NDMC,on virtual platform today.
#SwachhSurvekshan2020 pic.twitter.com/k33h0uCe4n

— New Delhi Municipal Council Official (@tweetndmc) August 20, 2020

The NDMC area comprises Lutyens Delhi and houses important buildings such as the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Parliament House, the Supreme Court, and the North and South Blocks.

NDMC had already attained ODF (open defecation free) Plus Plus tag which centers around achieving sanitation sustainability by addressing complete sanitation value chain, including safe containment, processing and disposal of fecal sludge and septage. Here is what more NDMC did to become ‘Cleanest Capital City’.

Swachh Survekshan 2020: New Delhi Municipal Council’s Success Story

1. 100 Per Cent Door To Door Waste Collection: NDMC successfully implemented 100 per cent door to door waste collection and segregation in all residential and commercial areas.

Based on parameters like door-to-door waste collection, waste management, on a scale of 1 to 7 cities are certified as garbage free. In 2019-2020, under the government’s Star Rating Protocol, NDMC was certified as 3-Star garbage-free city and the urban local body has held on the tag this year as well.

Also Read: Swachh Survekshan 2020: Maharashtra’s Navi Mumbai Is India’s Third Cleanest City. Here’s How The City Achieved The Title

At Swachh Survekshan 2020 award ceremony, Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, MoHUA motivated NDMC to achieve greater heights and said,

Many congratulations to you, your team and the citizens of NDMC. Now, you have to achieve 5-star and 7-star garbage free certification.

2. Waste Treatment: For efficient wet waste management, around 3,500 households have been motivated to practise home composting. 95 per cent of the bulk waste generators like restaurants, hotels, within NDMC are practising on-site processing of organic waste.

NDMC has a compost plant with capacity to treat 60 metric tonnes (MT) of waste per day, 2 organic waste converters (1 MT/day). Waste to energy plant has been installed to treat 240 metric tonnes of segregated non-biodegradable waste every day. Through this, 19 Mega Watts (MW) of electricity is generated daily.

Also Read: Swachh Survekshan 2020: Indore’s Annual Earnings Through Waste Processing Go Up

3. Green Belts: 122 compost pits have been created at 52 locations like Lodhi Garden, Nehru Park.

4. Buys E-waste From Citizens: For electronic waste or e-waste, NDMC has outsourced e-waste management services. Explaining the e-waste management process, Dr Shakuntala Srivastava, Chief Medical Officer (Coordination), NDMC, told NDTV,

Just like you sell your newspaper waste to a scrap dealer, you can sell your e-waste to us. By logging in to NDMC mobile application or website, any citizen can apply for the collection of e-waste and within half an hour to one hour, the waste will be collected. The price for all kinds of e-waste is listed on the website and based on that, the consumer will be paid.

Also Read: Swachh Survekshan 2020: Gujarat’s Surat Is India’s Second Cleanest City, Here’s A Lowdown Of All the Things Done Right

5. Underground Bins Make NDMC Bin Free City: Underground dustbins with sensors attached have been installed at 52 locations. The real time status of the dustbins is monitored 24×7. When the bins are 75 per cent full, NDMC control rooms and designated sanitary inspectors get an alert on their mobile phone. Sanitary inspector further directs waste collection compactors to go to the location, collect the waste and take it to processing units.

Also Read: New Age Dustbins Deployed By New Delhi Municipal Council To Modernise Waste Collection

6. Clean And Beautiful Roads: NDMC has strengthened night sweeping at commercial areas. In the morning and evening, roads are cleaned mechanically. The Urban Local Body has also resorted to wall paintings to give a rich new look to the streets of Delhi, like in Lodhi Road.

7. Plastic Lao, Thaila Pao: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) launched ‘plastic lao thaila pao’ (bring plastic, get a cloth bag) campaign at National Charkha Museum in Connaught Place. Through this, NDMC collected 11 metric tonnes of plastic waste and distributed 1,500 cloth bags.

Also Read: Delhi Gets Its First Garbage Café Where Plastic Waste Can Be Exchanged For Meals

8. Plastic Free Markets: 95 per cent of the NDMC area is plastic free, claims Dr Shakuntala. Doing away with the single-use plastic items in book stores, restaurants, and other kinds of shops, and replacing it with eco-friendly alternatives like wooden spoons, stirrers, paper straws, paper plates and others has also been done.

In Khanna market, you will not find a plastic bag; same goes for Bengali market, South Avenue Market, Krishna Menon lane and other areas, said Dr Shakuntala.

Devlina, a resident of CR Park in Delhi said,

Shopkeepers in the Bengali market have not completely stopped using plastic bags. One can still find them but yes, they have reduced their usage and have started using cotton bags and paper bags instead.

Also Read: Will Coronavirus Lockdown Delay India’s Commitment To Phase Out Single-use Plastic By 2022?

9. Improved Public And Community Toilets: Public and community toilets in NDMC region have been improved in terms of installation of water ATMs, sanitary napkin machines and incinerators for disposal of used pads. EspeciallyFor women and girls, pink toilets have been constructed. All toilets have ramps making them disabled friendly.

10. School Journalist Movement: By involving non-governmental organisations, NDMC created ambassadors/journalists in schools. These ambassadors educate their classmates, friends, family, and acquaintances about swachhata (cleanliness).

We focused more on creating awareness, mobilising citizens because behavioural change is the key to sustainability, said Dr Shakuntala.

LED screens have also been installed at prime locations in NDMC region to educate citizens about the importance of cleanliness and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Also Read: There Is No Planet B. We Need To Start Respecting Nature: Aaditya Thackeray On Plastic Ban

How NDMC Plans To Sustain Its Efforts

Sharing future plans, Dr Ramesh Kumar, Medical Officer of Health at NDMC, said,

We have to sustain what we have achieved. The plan is to construct more pink toilets, strengthen waste segregation and introduce segregation of domestic hazardous waste. Market areas usually have blue and green bins for dry and wet waste, respectively. We plan to add black bins for domestic hazardous waste.

Waste Management During COVID-19 Pandemic

According to a recent report filed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in the National Green Tribunal, India generates about 101 Metric Tonnes per day (MT/day) of COVID-19 related bio-medical waste. The national capital Delhi is among the top three waste generators and accounts for 11 per cent of India’s COVID-19 related bio-medical waste. According to the CPCB, 70 per cent of the existing capacity of two incinerators in Delhi is utilised. Therefore, it needs to ensure proper segregation.

Also Read: Waste Management: Citizens Of Gujarat’s Morbi District Can Now Get Household Utilities In Exchange For Plastic Waste

Talking about how NDMC is ensuring bio-medical waste management, Dr Kumar said,

Three waste pick-up vans are deployed only for COVID waste collection. With the help of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), we have been educating citizens to segregate their bio-medical waste which includes masks, gloves, among others. We are providing yellow bags to COVID-19 patients in home isolation and asking them to discard contaminated masks, gloves, tissues in that yellow bag. A temporary collection point has been created at Sarojini Nagar from where the two authorised companies pick waste for treatment.

Talking about waste management in Delhi and sharing tips, Chitra Mukherjee, Head – Advocacy and Policy at Chintan, a Delhi based NGO, said,

Toxic bio-medical waste from household, quarantine centres and other places is not being properly segregated owing to lack of awareness or accountability. The government needs to actively promote the use of cloth masks so that consumption of single-use disposable plastic mask is reduced. Rather than focussing on increasing incineration capacities, we need to curb plastic consumption and reduce waste generation.

Also Read: Waste Management During Coronavirus Pandemic: 27-year-old Recycles Bio-medical Waste Into Eco-friendly Bricks

NDTV – Dettol Banega Swasth India campaign is an extension of the five-year-old Banega Swachh India initiative helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. It aims to spread awareness about critical health issues facing the country. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign highlights the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children to prevent maternal and child mortality, fight malnutrition, stunting, wasting, anaemia and disease prevention through vaccines. Importance of programmes like Public Distribution System (PDS), Mid-day Meal Scheme, POSHAN Abhiyan and the role of Aganwadis and ASHA workers are also covered. Only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and become a Swasth or healthy India. The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene.