Vizag slips from 4th to 9th in Swachh Survekshan ranking
This decline is attributed to factors such as reducesd door-to-door waste collection and a drop in source segregation levels to 81%. Despite the slip, Visakhapatnam maintained a strong overall score of 11,636 out of 12,500.
Within the core SS2024 component worth 10,000 marks, the city scored 9,336—placing it 8th among the top 10 cities. In the garbage-free cities (GFC) category, worth 1,300 marks, Visakhapatnam earned 1,100 marks — tying with Pune and Agra but falling 200 marks short of the highest scorers.
The city performed exceptionally well in the open defecation-free segment, earning full marks of 1,200, in line with its top-tier peers.
Although Visakhapatnam trails Pune by 57 marks and Hyderabad by just 14 in the SS2024 component, its 200-mark shortfall in the GFC category—equivalent to missing 2–3 mid-weight indicators such as stormwater drain cleanliness—highlights specific areas for improvement.
This year saw the introduction of new 'Super Swachh League' to recognise cities with consistent top-tier performance.
To qualify, cities must have ranked in the top three at least once in the past three years and be among the top 20% of their category in the current year. Four cities have been recognised as Super Swachh League cities. Vijayawada made the cut among these four cities with populations over 10 lakh, while Visakhapatnam would stand at 13th if these league cities were included in the overall rankings.
The Swachh Survekshan 2024 (SS2024) toolkit allocates a total of 10,000 marks across ten key performance areas: visible cleanliness (1,500 marks), segregation, collection & transportation (1,000), solid waste management (1,500), access to sanitation (1,000), used water management (1,000), mechanisation of desludging services (500), advocacy for Swachhta (1,500), ecosystem strengthening & institutional capacity (1,000), welfare of sanitation workers (500), and citizen feedback & grievance redressal (500).
According to experts, to improve its standing, Visakhapatnam should focus on enhancing door-to-door segregated waste collection to align with higher-scoring peers, expanding solid waste processing capacity, and accelerating landfill remediation. Increasing the fleet and frequency of mechanised desludging services could help secure full 500 marks in that area. To maximise scores in advocacy and feedback, the city should utilise school-based assessments, run awareness campaigns at tourist spots, and strengthen digital citizen engagement platforms.
A major highlight for Visakhapatnam was winning Rank 1 in the Safaimitra Surakshit Shehar category. GVMC mayor Peela Srinivasa Rao described it as a proud moment and dedicated the achievement to sanitation workers, citizens, GVMC staff, public representatives, and partner organisations.
Commissioner Ketan Garg also expressed pride in the recognition, crediting citizen participation and the dedication of the GVMC workforce.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hans India
a day ago
- Hans India
Puttur shines in Swachh Survekshan rankings
Puttur: Puttur City Municipal Council has achieved the 8th rank in Karnataka in the Swachh Survekshan 2024–25, a nationwide cleanliness survey conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The city earned recognition for its comprehensive and sustainable waste management strategy, including 100% door-to-door waste collection and an efficient solid waste processing system. Its proactive, community-based approach sets an example for urban areas striving for cleanliness and hygiene. Among the initiatives that drew national appreciation were a biogas plant and an electronic waste collection centre, both implemented through public-private partnerships. These innovative efforts were specially acknowledged in the assessment.
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Hindustan Times
Swachh Survekshan 2024: After dismal 219 rank, Panchkula turns to Indore to clean up its act
Following a decline in the Swachh Survekshan 2024 ranking, the Panchkula municipal corporation (MC) is set to implement cleanliness models of Indore and of four other top-performing urban cities in the country. A senior MC officer confirmed that detailed reports from these cities have been requested to guide their new strategies. An MC official acknowledged that data collection for the assessment was flawed, with public questionnaires on cleanliness not accurately recorded. (Sant Arora/HT) Panchkula's ranking plummeted to 219th this time from 139th in 2023, as released by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs. The MC is currently awaiting its detailed score breakdown from the Swachh Survekshan assessment to pinpoint specific areas for improvement. An MC official acknowledged that data collection for the assessment was flawed, with public questionnaires on cleanliness not accurately recorded. 'A significant 1,200 marks were directly deducted due to the absence of a waste-processing plant. Insufficient social media publicity for Swachh Survekshan also contributed to the low score,' the MC official added. Swachh Survekshan 2024: After dismal 219 rank, Panchkula turns to Indore to clean up its act Despite the numerical drop, an officer offered a nuanced perspective. The officer explained that in 2023, the city competed against 446 cities in the 1-3 lakh population category. This year, it was in the 50,000-3 lakh population category with 824 competing cities. Despite this increased competition, Panchkula secured 10% more marks (8,008 out of 12,500) compared to last year's 5,224 out of 9,500, suggesting an underlying improvement in performance. Major setback in waste collection and processing In the Swachh Survekshan, Panchkula had major setbacks under various categories. Report shows that door-to-door waste collection sharply fell from 99% in 2023 to 61% in 2024 and source segregation in the city plunged from 61% to just 20%. Waste processing efficiency also plummeted from 98% to 51%. Public toilet cleanliness declined from a perfect 100% to 50%. Cleanliness of residential areas also saw a slight dip from 99% to 88%. Raising his concerns, SK Nayar, president of the Citizens' Welfare Association, criticised the MC's waste management. He stated that the door-to-door garbage collection service is unsatisfactory and doesn't cater to the needs of vulnerable groups like seniors, patients, and those residing on upper floors. Nayar highlighted that MC staff often mix segregated waste, undermining residents' efforts. He further expressed alarm over the condition of public toilets in markets and parks, describing them as frequently locked, dirty, broken, or lacking water. HSVP asks MC to take over cleanliness of more sectors In a related development, the Haryana Shehari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) has formally requested the MC commissioner to accommodate its 32 employees and assume responsibility for the cleanliness of additional sectors, including those in the trans-Ghaggar area, Sector 31, and the MDC area. If the MC accepts this proposal, it could expand its cleanliness coverage. Presently, the sanitation work in these sectors is handled by HSVP. City ready for monsoon with cleaned drains, improved roads The Panchkula Metropolitan Development Authority (PMDA) has announced comprehensive measures to tackle monsoon waterlogging and enhance city infrastructure. PMDA CEO K Makarand Pandurang stated that all city drains have been thoroughly cleaned, including major stormwater channels and roadside drains. He said that significant progress has also been made on road repairs, with 28 out of 32 sanctioned outer roads covering 21.72 km already completed. Additionally, a master plan for the city's entire rainwater drainage system is underway, and projects to upgrade 11 major parks and 19 green belts with new amenities are progressing. The PMDA has approved projects worth ₹251.17 crore for these various initiatives.
The Hindu
3 days ago
- The Hindu
Takeaways from the Swachh Survekshan
Rankings and celebrations apart, the ninth edition of Swachh Survekshan, branded as the world's largest cleanliness survey, provides policy makers and city managers a reality check on urban sanitation and waste management, and a reliable database. The annual survey steered by Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM)-Urban had not only over 4,500 cities competing, compared to less than 100 in 2016, but was also backed by elaborate assessments and third party verification and further bolstered by feedback from 140 million city dwellers. From segregation, collection, transportation, and management of waste to the welfare of sanitation workers and grievance redressal, the 10 parameters of the survey are comprehensive. The survey has emerged as an effective driver of competition and movement in city sanitation. It also provides a measure of the gaps in India's journey towards clean cities. Different population sizes The advent of Super Swachh League this year was an overdue twist to break the stalemate at the top of the rankings. Indore, Surat, and Navi Mumbai — all mascots of cleanliness for a while — entered this new space along with 20 other cities of different population sizes. Members of the League could create new benchmarks and compete among themselves while yielding space to new aspirants to enter clean city ranks. That is how Ahmedabad, Bhopal, and Lucknow could break into the top as India's cleanest cities this time in the million-plus category, with another 12 receiving ranks in their own population segments. Swachh Survekshan 2024-25 appeared focused on faster democratisation of city cleanliness. The expansion of population categories from two to five, starting from cities with a population of less than 20,000 to those with a million-plus population, provided a fairer platform for cities to perform. Those hitherto lagging are now catching up. Odisha is an example. Bhubaneswar moved up from the 34th to the 9th rank; small towns such as Aska and Chikiti worked their way to the top three clean cities in their categories; and mid-size cities including Rourkela, Cuttack, and Berhampur moved considerably upwards. These trends create hope that cleanliness is not a preserve of only certain States. Cities from the south are yet to make any big mark in the clean city show with Bengaluru being the least inspirational. Hyderabad, Tirupati, Vijayawada, Guntur, and Mysuru were the best in the region. The National Capital Region presents an interesting medley: while the New Delhi Municipal Council areas and Noida ranked best for meticulous sanitation implementation, Delhi, Gurugram, and Ghaziabad improved their ranks irrespective of the negative reports they received in the public domain. The clean city basket has grown larger since one promising clean city was picked up from each State based on its progress and potential. Once cities are positively stamped, they tend to stay in the aspirational course. Understood this way, the 78 Swachh awards given were not too many. Setting up the cleanest cities as mentors to the most underperforming ones could help in the proliferation of multiple good practices among urban local bodies (ULBs). While Indore is a veteran in segregating the last gram of waste into six buckets at source — dry, wet, domestic hazardous, plastic, sanitary and e-waste; Surat has been making good revenue by selling sewage-treated water. Pune's waste management is anchored on cooperatives formed by ragpickers. Visakhapatnam made an eco-park from remediated legacy waste site. Lucknow produced an iconic waste wonder park. The Kuberpur area in Agra, once a toxic dumpsite, transformed to 47 acres of green, by engaging bioremediation and biomining technologies. Tourist destinations and places of high footfall received special emphasis in the survey. Prayagraj was awarded in the category of Ganga towns, and special recognition was extended to the recent Maha Kumbh for its sanitation management. India accounts for less than 1.5% of international tourist arrivals. Cities need to do much more than an occasional cleanliness drive to enhance tourist experience. The theme this year The theme of 'reduce, reuse, and recycle (RRR)', advocated by the 2025 survey, carries the prospect of jobs, enterprise, and invigoration of self-help groups. The theme of the last survey was 'waste to wealth'. We are yet to raise the billions of rupees out of waste that is possible. For this, policy needs to better incentivise investors. Waste-to-energy plants are gaining traction but the private sector may be concerned about commercial viability. Citizens are yet to take meaningful action even though the RRR approach is entrenched in India's ancient traditions. While a universal resentment against open defecation has been achieved by SBM, a behaviour change movement fostering intolerance against waste and fighting against consumerism has been tough to initiate. As more cities get identified as hubs of growth, we must prioritise the management of 1.5 lakh tonnes of solid waste generated every day. A lot will depend on delivery at decentralised levels, especially by ULBs in enforcing segregation, collection, transport, and processing, including of the more challenging plastic and e-waste. The business of waste management in cities may look chaotic, but it remains possible. The rise of Surat from being a place of garbage three decades ago to the top place in the sanitation chart last year shows that this is a possibility in all cities in India. Akshay Rout, Former Director General, Swachh Bharat Mission.
