INDORE: At a loss to tame Delhi’s rising pollution, mountains of garbage and seasonal epidemics, the BJP has asked heads of municipal bodies to look at Indore’s transformation in the last four years to India’s cleanest city. Like Delhi, Indore too had battled spilling landfill sites, dengue, viral fever outbreaks and worsening air quality in the past.
However, unlike the national capital, where those occupying the corridors of power think that outsourcing services to private players is a solution to all problems, Indore has done just the opposite and kicked out a private agency to achieve top ranking in cleanliness.
“Indore didn’t record a single case of dengue last year, while there were 160 cases in 2014, 155 in 2015 and 129 in 2016. Likewise, cases of viral fever came down to 9,169 last year against 46,260 in 2014, 39,825 in 2015, and 37,026 in 2016,” said Asad Warsi, consultant, Indore Municipal Corporation.
The BJP has asked mayors of Delhi’s municipal entities to replicate Indore’s turnaround, which, after being ranked at 187 in the 2015 Swachhta ranking of 434 cities, was at the top of the heap in 2017 and 2018 too.
That Indore could bring down its Particular Matter 2.5 levels from 140-150 to 70-80 within a few years, besides setting a target of 50, is piquing the curiosity of leaders since Delhi’s odd-even experiment failed and despite various efforts including banning crackers at Diwali, the air pollution stays above danger levels year round.
Indore, which, at 35 lakh, has one-seventh of the population of Delhi, is also reclaiming old landfill sites for developing forests and commercial properties, as opposed to the national capital that is searching for more land to dump its solid waste as its landfills at Ghazipur and Bhalswa has exhausted their capacities a decade ago.
“We found that the private player was focused only on profits with no corresponding changes on indicators. So, we removed them. Except for NGOs who are roped in for awareness campaigns, the Indore Municipal Corporation, on its own, developed the system of complete segregation of solid waste at source to achieve the turnaround in a span of three years,” said Warsi. “We are reclaiming land from a 146 acre landfill site through bio-remediation, with 70 acres already turned into forests,” said Warsi, who credited former Indore Municipal Commissioner Manish Kumar for scripting the turnaround.
Delhi can also learn a lesson or two from Indore on how to maximise funds.
“We were spending Rs 135 crore to manage 400 tonnes of solid waste a few years ago. We now treat 1,100 tonnes at a cost of Rs 145 crore. The additional `10 crore has come on account of engaging the NGOs,” said Warsi, while adding that Indore has no garbage dumping places, litter and dust.Incidentally, out of 1,100 tonnes of solid waste, only 50 tonnes is dumped at landfill sites where trained rag-pickers are employed. Rest of the garbage is treated through decentralised processing of wet and dry wastes at 400 places, said Warsi.