The making of swachh Navi Mumbai

Out of 4354 urban local bodies across the country Navi Mumbai letrsquos call it NuBo was named the third cleanest city in Swachh Survekshan 2022 Itrsquos the only city in the state to receive the honour and ranks below Indore and Surat Home to approximately 15 lakh people how did the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation NMMC manage this recognitionAbhijeet Bangar who was the commissioner of NMMC for two years and is now commissioner of Thane Municipal Corporation says ldquoWhen I took office the city was already clean and officials were working hard to keep the momentum The only aspect we lacked was beautificationrdquoA chunk of the effort was to segregate and manage waste Sculptures most of them made out of waste and recycled material came up at intersections Public fountains also use treated wastewater ldquoWe needed support from citizensrdquo he adds ldquoand their most important contribution was waste segregation and home compostingrdquoThirty donation boxes are spread across the city of Navi Mumbai With a line on it saying lsquonako asel te dya have asel te ghyarsquo the box not only asks one to donate clothes utensils shoes etc that one doesnrsquot need but also encourage people to pick any item from the box that they find usefulA staff of 4400 permanent and contractual workers tackled the crucial management of solid waste ldquoWe canvassed widelyrdquo adds Dr Babasaheb Rajale deputy municipal commissioner director solid waste management and convener for Swachh Maharashtra Abhiyan ldquoand also told citizens to separate hazardous waste This helped process garbage coming out of each householdrdquo ldquoIf citizens just maintain this disciplinerdquo declares Bangar ldquono one can stop Navi Mumbai from ranking first the next timerdquoAlso Read Navi Mumbai Rights panel pulls up top babus over Parsik Hill diggingThe next task was to set up donation boxes as nodes for objects that still have a lifespan A collection of metal boxes labelled books clothing shoes utensils etc make up the console ldquoMany times we feel a shirt or dress no longer looks good on usrdquo says Dr Rajale ldquoOr a toy or household item is no longer of use We told citizens to put such things into these boxes allotted for the purpose to prolong their usage We called it Nako asel te dya have asel te ghya Give what you donrsquot want take what you want Around 30 such boxes are spread across the cityrdquoThe biggest hit was the Greensole initiative Collection boxes in large and plush residential complexes were kept for stillusable shoes and chappals Local cobblers were enlisted to repair them and redo the soles and distributed amongst those in need School children were requested to collect wrappers of chips and chocolates and deposit them in a plastic bottle so that they donrsquot clog sewage lines NMMC collected these every month and sent them to an NGO in Pune for recycling They added up to 800 such bottlesFormer commissioner of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation Abhijeet Bangar receiving the award for clean city from President Droupadi Murmu on October 2 2022Another ace up NMMCrsquos sleeve was the seven stateofart sewage treatment centres Out of these two tertiary treatment plants at Koparkhairane and Airoli have already started distributing recycled water to TTC industrial sector thereby reducing water wastage while also bringing in moneyWhen it comes to innovative ideas NMMC also organised a Swachh Kavi Sammelan where poets wrote couplets related to cleanliness and hygiene The summit saw them expressing the desire of having walls in the city painted with lines of great poets from Marathi literature Reacting to this then NMMC commissioner Bangar invited senior calligraphy artist Achyut Palav and drew in students of JJ School of Arts and Thane School of Arts Soon 35 walls in the city were inscribed with verses from classic Marathi poems The students of various art colleges were also roped in to create colourful walls and eyecatching sculptures at important intersectionsThe NMMC has around 40 big slum pockets In its bid to find a solution a pilot project was launched with Hanuman Nagar Indira Nagar Turbhe AdavaliBhutavli and Samta Nagar Airoli and Bindu Madhav Nagar Digha being chosen for the Zero Waste Slum model Here women rag pickers were asked to collect daily garbage from these slums and segregate wet garbage and add it to the compost pits This reduced the amount of garbage in the slums the number of trips of garbage vans and provided fixed income to the women hailing from the lowest rank of society The concept is now being implemented in other slum pockets as wellThe public fountains in the city use treated wastewaterIt was imperative that everyone come together to keep NuBo clean To encourage corporation officials Swachh Manthan a competition between eight wards was organised where each ward was judged on 21 criteria such as cleanliness the situation of public toilets maintenance of footpaths etc The NMMC also included its transgender community ldquoThe transgender community is so neglected that we donrsquot even think they can also participate in such drivesrdquo says Richa Sameet founder of NGO Letrsquos Celebrate Fitness ldquoStreet plays featuring 30 to 40 transgenders were designed to inform the people about the swachh survey It was performed in every housing society as well as public places like traffic signals and railway stationsrdquoThe mangroves of the city located along the Thane creek too needed attention The dumping of garbage and debris also posed an environmental hazard ldquoThe cityrsquos cleanliness depends upon how its water bodies are being kept The condition was terrible when it came to mangrovesrdquo says Dharmesh Barai founder of Mangroves Soldier adding that it started to change after a group of friends started a cleaning drive on Sundays ldquoAs the word spread more people started joining the movement It has been 122 weeks so far and NMMC has stood with usrdquo he addsHailing the achievement NMMC Commissioner Rajesh Narvekar said ldquoThe cleanliness and beautification efforts by NMMC are now visible The consistent efforts of all the stakeholders be it sweeper on the road or officer planning projects have given rise to more expectations We are aiming to become the countryrsquos cleanest city for the year 2023 We will expedite and expand works related to cleanliness and will make sure we top the rankingrdquoA dose of historyConsidered Mumbairsquos twin Navi Mumbai lies between Thane creek and the Sahyadri range on the statersquos west coast in the Konkan division It was conceived in the 1970s in response to the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning MRTP Act 1966 to decongest the city As it expanded a need for a local body to look after the city transportation public health and education arose Thus on January 1 1992 NMMC came into existence Of Navi Mumbairsquos total area of 34370 sqkm 10959 sqkm is under NMMC jurisdiction