Mysuru has been ranked India’s cleanest city, the second year in a row. From constructing toilets, door-to-door garbage collection, city cleanliness to citizen behaviour, the city scored well on all almost all sanitation parameters.
Sad and surprised, the biggest hail for Mysuru came from the neighbouring city Bengaluru, facing a terrible waste disposal crisis. Nevertheless, none of the cities from south India featured in the ‘dirty list’, and the reasons are more than mere coincidence.
What Did Mysuru Do Right?
Mysuru’s terrific cleanliness has its roots in the 150-year-old city planning by the Wodeyar Kings. Mysuru still thanks its visionary kings for a 900 acre segregated sewage treatment space, clean and systematic supply of drinking water, the demarcation between residential and commercial localities and a culture of democratic participation in keeping public places clean.
Mysuru is one of the earliest cities to have door-to-door garbage collection in India. Large habitations in cities like Bengaluru and Kolkata are not covered by door-to-door garbage collection. Mysuru, to a great extent, ensures that garbage is eliminated from homes before it becomes an unwanted public property.
Everything from plastic bags, food wrappers, discarded footwear to used cans gets recycled. The city focuses on solid waste management and processes close to 400 tonnes of solid waste per day.
A gradual growth in population with proper city planning, adhering to the rules laid by the Wodeyar kings has helped Mysuru avoid infrastructural pitfalls that crumbled other cities.
In the run up to the Swachh Survey 2015, Mysuru city administration ran a drive for the segregation of waste at the source. A strict watch over mixing dry and wet waste along with the distribution of over three lakh dustbins to the poorest families has shown great results even this year.
To keep the public spaces clean and to avoid roadside garbage accumulation, the administration controlled the proliferation of roadside eateries. The street vendors have been largely regulated and have been moved to designated sites in many cases.
Who Owns the Piece of Trash?
While Mysuru becomes the ‘topper-type’, quite a few Mysureans feel a lot still needs to be done and, “the cleanest city tag will take away the attention from the wrong doings.”
However, public cleanliness is equally a private matter. Every piece of trash thrown on the streets was once owned by somebody and no accolades are possible without partnerships.
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