Evaluators of Swachh Survekshan, the cleanliness survey pushed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, will fan themselves across the city from Monday to assess urban sanitation works in Kochi.
A group of officials from the Central ministry completed their three-day verification of documents pertaining to the sanitation measures in the city on Saturday.
The civic administration appeared to have taken extra care to put the city in order in the wake of the survey as it had been trailing in the last two national surveys. Though Kochi was ranked fifth in the first assessment, it slipped to the 75th position next year. Last year, it ended up in the hall of shame with a rank of 271 with only a few cities behind Kochi in the list. “This time, 4,041 cities are competing for the ranking and the civic administration has taken all possible measures for improved ranking,” said V.K. Minimol, chairperson of the health standing committee of the Kochi Corporation.
Data on waste that is regularly transported to the waste treatment facility at Brahmapuram and the log books of lorries transporting the waste were among the documents submitted to the authorities, she said.
ODF status
Despite the preparations, the city will lose valuable 200 points in the competition, which would have significant bearing on the outcome. Kochi Corporation could not be declared an Open Defecation-Free (ODF) city as it could not get the certificate from the councillor representing the Gandhi Nagar Division. All others except one councillor had certified their divisions as ODF, said Ms. Minimol.
Poornima Narayan, the councillor representing the division, said the letter was not issued as the authorities could not provide the required facilities for the residents of P and T Colony in the Gandhi Nagar division. A letter was issued to the civic authorities indicating the needs of the residents of the colony earlier.
Fresh applications for obtaining the required facilities would be submitted in the second phase of the programme, said Ms. Narayan.
During the third phase of the survey, citizen feedback will be taken into account. The city will be awarded points based on citizen awareness on the survey and related areas.
The civic body has put up 50 hoardings in the city highlighting the message of the campaign. Flash-mobs were held in all divisions to spread the message, she said.
Urban sanitation
The survey is being held nationwide to encourage cities to improve urban sanitation. The progress achieved by the cities in 2017 will be evaluated in the process.
The survey aims to encourage citizen participation and create awareness among all sections of society to make towns and cities betters places to live. It also aims to “foster a spirit of healthy competition among towns and cities to improve their service delivery to citizens, towards creating cleaner cities,” according to the Ministry.
