NEW DELHI: In a first, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has launched a door-to-door campaign in slum clusters and JJ colonies to create awareness and engage people in the segregation of household waste at the source.
The initiative has come up right before the municipal polls are scheduled in April this year. While the civic body had started a door-to-door collection of waste from its three model wards in 2019, this is the first time when it has reached out to the slum clusters to make them participate in the exercise.
“In this series, a door-to-door drive on the segregation of wet and dry waste at source was carried out in collaboration with ITC WOW at R K Puram ward’s Ekta Camp in south zone. Residents of Ekta Camp were educated on categories of waste — dry, wet and sanitary and how to segregate and dispose of it in a sustainable manner,” said a senior SDMC official.
A total of 540 households were covered during the door-to-door campaign and residents were motivated to keep their surroundings clean. “Besides, we’ve created a WhatsApp group of households of Ekta Camp, Ambedkar Basti, and Sonia Camp for close coordination for the purpose and tracking progress on this front,” the official said.
The campaign will be extended to the civic body’s four zones — south, central, west and Najafgarh —, so
as to make people aware of ‘swachhta’ initiatives, the official added. An awareness programme, ‘Panni Se Kanni’, aimed at eradicating single-use plastic was also carried out. “This was mainly targeted to cover shopkeepers, mobile vendors, and cart pullers, who generally use single-use plastic. We’ve been encouraging them to use jute/cloth bags, which were also distributed amongst them,” said the official.
540 houses covered
A total of 540 households were covered under the drive and residents were motivated by cleanliness. A WhatsApp group was also created for Ekta Camp, Ambedkar Basti and Sonia Camp households for the purpose.