Swachh Surveshan impact: Pan-India study to cover 15 cities including Prayagraj

To assess the positive impact of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) on municipal reforms, governance, and service delivery, the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs is conducting a research study in the top 15 performing cities across India. Under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), the government of India launched Swachh Survekshan, the world’s largest annual urban sanitation survey.

The study aims to identify and document innovative and best practices to promote replication in other Indian cities and will cover Prayagraj, the only city from Uttar Pradesh included in this study.

This exercise will be conducted with the support of KPMG and Athena Infonomics, as part of the USAID-funded Support for Urban Water and Sanitation in India (SUWASI) program, according to a directive dated August 9 sent to all municipal commissioners/executive officers of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) involved.

The letter from director of Swachh Bharat Mission, Binay Kumar Jha, a copy of which is with HT, informs that the research team from Athena Infonomics will visit these cities for primary data collection. It urges cooperation in helping the team identify key interventions in respective cities. The letter also requests officials to nominate a representative from their departments to coordinate with the research team, confirmed a senior official from the Prayagraj Nagar Nigam (PNN).

The cities selected for this study include Navi Mumbai, Kurunwadi, Sasvad, and Lonavala (Maharashtra); Surat (Gujarat); Patan, Ramanujganj, Kumhari, and Arjunda (Chhattisgarh); Guntur (Andhra Pradesh); Budni and Nawrozabad (Madhya Pradesh); Patna (Bihar); and Chikiti (Odisha), in addition to Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh).

Jha has asked officials to assist the visiting study team in understanding what has worked, the challenges faced, and how they were overcome, as well as how Swachh Survekshan has contributed to maintaining cleanliness in their respective cities.

“A survey team is being sent by the Union Ministry for a research survey in Prayagraj. These teams are only visiting cities where new experiments in cleanliness are being conducted. Prayagraj Municipal Corporation has also started using modern equipment for composting garbage and cleaning. A plant to convert garbage into CNG is under preparation. The research survey will be conducted here with these experiments in mind,” said Chandra Mohan Garg, Municipal Commissioner, Prayagraj.