Garbage, the biggest challenge for IT City, has pushed Bengaluru to 210th position in the all-India rankings released on Thursday.
Civic experts say that while they are not shocked to hear Thursday's rankings, it is true that citizens are to be blamed for the lack of cleanliness in the city. Teamwork between civic agencies and citizens is necessary, they said.
N S Ramakanth, the member of the solid waste management expert committee in BBMP, says we have a long way to go, but in five years, Bengaluru will be among the top 10 or 15 cities. "There are demographic issues like the city's population and area covered under a single municipal corporation. This is not the case with Delhi or Mumbai. But I admit we have not yet done enough to be called a clean city. The issues of black spots and waste not being segregated as desired in all wards, is holding us back. There is no enforcement and BBMP is taking a lot of time to whip contractors and citizens into line. I am not shocked with the results," he said.
Bengaluru ranked 38 in the Swachh Bharat cities' list in 2016, when only 78 cities were surveyed. This year, 434 town and city municipalities were surveyed. "The list also tabulated the ranking of cities with a population of less than 2lakh, in the 2-10lakh bracket and more than 10lakh. Bengaluru's population is above 1crore and the city is spread over 800sqkm.This may not be a fair comparison," said an urban analyst.
As per BBMP's daily reports, 198 wards generate about 4,100 tonnes of waste daily and 50% of citizens households dwelling units segregate their waste at source. "Overall, 50%60% of the wards are doing well in terms of segregating waste at source. I believe citizens are very active and aware about the issue now, and are ready to make the change happen, but a lot more awareness needs to be created from our end," said Sarfaraz Khan, BBMP joint commissioner (health and solid waste management).
He also said the city is a role model for many Indian cities and the Centre recently issued a directive to all cities to follow segregation at source, not mentioning Bengaluru. "London segregates only 18% to 19% of its waste and Ahmedabad too, has landfills running for kilometres," he said.
Yet another urban analyst said Bengalureans may have set higher standards and rated their city more critically than a Mumbaikar during the survey. "Bengaluru cannot be compared with Indore. Population and geographies do matter while ranking Indian cities on one condition -cleanliness.There need to be comparable matrices. Visibly, Bengaluru is not as bad as before," she added.
Civic experts say that while they are not shocked to hear Thursday's rankings, it is true that citizens are to be blamed for the lack of cleanliness in the city. Teamwork between civic agencies and citizens is necessary, they said.
N S Ramakanth, the member of the solid waste management expert committee in BBMP, says we have a long way to go, but in five years, Bengaluru will be among the top 10 or 15 cities. "There are demographic issues like the city's population and area covered under a single municipal corporation. This is not the case with Delhi or Mumbai. But I admit we have not yet done enough to be called a clean city. The issues of black spots and waste not being segregated as desired in all wards, is holding us back. There is no enforcement and BBMP is taking a lot of time to whip contractors and citizens into line. I am not shocked with the results," he said.
Bengaluru ranked 38 in the Swachh Bharat cities' list in 2016, when only 78 cities were surveyed. This year, 434 town and city municipalities were surveyed. "The list also tabulated the ranking of cities with a population of less than 2lakh, in the 2-10lakh bracket and more than 10lakh. Bengaluru's population is above 1crore and the city is spread over 800sqkm.This may not be a fair comparison," said an urban analyst.
As per BBMP's daily reports, 198 wards generate about 4,100 tonnes of waste daily and 50% of citizens households dwelling units segregate their waste at source. "Overall, 50%60% of the wards are doing well in terms of segregating waste at source. I believe citizens are very active and aware about the issue now, and are ready to make the change happen, but a lot more awareness needs to be created from our end," said Sarfaraz Khan, BBMP joint commissioner (health and solid waste management).
He also said the city is a role model for many Indian cities and the Centre recently issued a directive to all cities to follow segregation at source, not mentioning Bengaluru. "London segregates only 18% to 19% of its waste and Ahmedabad too, has landfills running for kilometres," he said.
Yet another urban analyst said Bengalureans may have set higher standards and rated their city more critically than a Mumbaikar during the survey. "Bengaluru cannot be compared with Indore. Population and geographies do matter while ranking Indian cities on one condition -cleanliness.There need to be comparable matrices. Visibly, Bengaluru is not as bad as before," she added.