The ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) on Thursday upgraded Noida’s rank for its solid waste management system to three stars from the one-star rating it had awarded last month.
This was the first time that Noida participated in the rating exercise that looked into 25 key parameters on waste management. At present, it is the highest rated among the six cities in Uttar Pradesh that participated in the survey that was conducted in October last year.
“My heartiest congratulations to Visakhapatnam, Vadodara, Ahmedanagar, Pune, Ballarpur, Noida, Gwalior,which have been upgraded in review as 3-Star #GarbageFreeCities. Their representation on recent certification has been scrutinised by 3rd Party & been found fit for higher rating,” tweeted Durga Shanker Mishra, secretary, MoHUA.
The Star Rating Of Garbage Free Cities survey requires participating cities to submit a self-assessment and self-verification document on its waste management system. It is then further verified through an independent third-party agency appointed by MoHUA.
On the list of 141 cities that were awarded stars, there are 73 cities that now share the three-star rank. Five cities — Ambikapur, Rajkot, Surat, Mysore, Indore and Navi Mumbai — top the chart with five stars. The rating system helps cities assess their progress while encouraging them to move towards a better rating, thereby improving their overall cleanliness and aesthetics.
“In the survey, they had given us zero for remediation. But we had a plant at sector 145 for this purpose. We approached the ministry with this and that got us the three stars,” said Ritu Maheshwari, Noida authority CEO.
The Noida authority said they will aim to win five-star rating next year and the seven-star rating in 2022.
“We had applied for the five-star category and worked very hard. But we are happy to get the three-star rank because it is the first time that Noida participated and won a prestigious award. Now we aim to improve in certain areas such as ensuring the garbage is not strewn on roadsides in the city and other parameters,” said SC Mishra senior project engineer of the Noida authority head of the health department.
The health department said that it had planned to convert 350 undesignated garbage points into “beauty spots”.
“But we could not finish this task before the survey that started in October, 2019. We could build only 140 beauty spots. We have fixed our target to improve on multiple areas to get five-star rating next year,” said Mishra.
Other weak spots for the city were its failure to clean its 300 drains, not segregating waste at households, inadequate composting facilities, material recovery centre built only in two out of 10 and waste treatment facilities.
Noida spread across 20000 hectares of an area generates around 650 tonne of waste daily.
Gautam Budh Nagar district development residents’ welfare association (DDRWA), a residents’ body said that the authority could not develop a much-needed infrastructure on time.
“The Noida authority started the preparations to make city garbage free late and could not finish its targets on time. Also, it has not taken residents’ on board from all sectors. The authority must focus on sustainable models so that the waste treatment facilities work for long term,” said NP Singh president of DDRWA.
