The city which is going to be the first Smart City in the country needs to first address the basic civic issues such as sanitation and sewage handling, Commissioner of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation Pravin Kumar said.
Cleanliness can happen only when all the stakeholders, including the residents, play their role to perfection. While the civic workers have to do their duty, the citizens too have to do theirs by not littering, he said addressing the media in his chambers here on Saturday.
One of the major problems in solid waste management was use of non-biodegradable plastic, especially bags which were less than 40 micron thick. Traders continue to use such bags despite it being banned by the Government. There was a need for high level of awareness among the residents to help the City become ‘Plastic Free’, he said.
Steps would be taken to increase awareness among vendors on the beaches to stop littering, they would also be made responsible for the litter created by their customers, he said.
Another major problem was the issue of open defecation due to scarcity of lavatories in homes in the city. According to an estimate of the public health department of the GVMC there around 90,000 homes in the city that don’t have toilets. The GVMC would seek funds from different schemes to build the required individual sanitary latrines or community toilets, he said.
Though the departments of the city administration were putting out figures showing high-level performance and efficiency, there were many places where no work had been done.
In many places the community toilets were unapproachable defeating their very purpose, he said.
The GVMC was taking up a comprehensive gap analysis and take steps to improve the performance of different departments in the city administration, he said.
