What worked, and what didn’t, for Delhi in cleanliness rankings

To be sure, this was the first Swachh Survekshan for the unified MCD which was set up by merging North, South and East MCD in May 2022

The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) was judged to be seventh cleanest region nationally among local bodies with more than 100,000 population, and the cleanest city within Union territories, according to the Swachh Survekshan report released by the Union ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Thursday.

The 1,483 sq km of Delhi’s geographical area comprises of three urban local bodies— with the MCD covering 1,397 sqm area, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) -- which covers Lutyens’ Delhi region --- and the Delhi Cantonment Board. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) area, which covers more than 94% of city’s geographical area, was ranked 90 out of 446 urban local bodies in the category of cities with a population of more than 100,000, while the Delhi Cantonment Board area slipped two spots — ranking seventh out of 61 — in the cantonment category.

To be sure, this was the first Swachh Survekshan for the unified MCD, set up by merging North, South and East MCDs in May 2022.

This year’s survey also carried changed baseline levels, with urban local bodies being eligible to earn 9,500 points in various categories in comparison to 7,500 points in the 2022 version of the survey. Additionally, the latest survey clubbed urban local bodies in two categories — cities with more than 100,000 and those with populations fewer than this number. In contrast, for the 2022 assessment, cities were divided into two buckets: one with 100,000 to 1 million population, and the other with over a million population.

Under the 2023 Swachh Survekshan, Indore and Surat secured the joint top positions, with both securing 9,348.39 out of 9,500 points. In comparison, NDMC was awarded 8,728.30 points while MCD got 6,114.70 points.

Among the major areas where the MCD lost out was in landfill sites. The MCD’s project for biomining and bioremediation of the Okhla, Bhalswa and Ghazipur landfills has been slow and has missed several deadlines. After multiple revisions, the latest deadline – from an initial one of 2019 — to clear these sites has been set at December 2024. HT earlier reported that the addition of fresh waste remains the main hurdle ahead of this project. NDMC was awarded 100% marks in this category as it does not have any dumpsite, its waste instead goes to the Okhla landfill – which falls under MCD.

Delhi generates 11,328 tonnes of waste everyday with 11,000 tonnes per day (TPD) coming from MCD areas, 256 TPD from NDMC and 72 TPD from cantonment area. NDMC was judged to have the highest processing level at 100%, followed by MCD with 86% and Delhi Cantt at 75%. The report card awarded 71% marks to MCD for door-to-door waste collection and 99% to NDMC on the same parameter. Similarly, MCD got 86% marks for waste processing while NDMC had 100% on the same parameter.

The only area where MCD outperformed NDMC is in waste segregation: MCD received 100% points for waste segregation, an area in which NDMC was awarded 87%.

Domestic municipal waste comprises wet waste (kitchen) and dry waste (paper, bags, plastic etc). Though it is mandatory for households to segregate waste at a household level, source segregation remains minimal, said experts, expressing incredulity at MCD’s score. Even Indore secured 98% in this category.

Atin Biswas, programme director of municipal solid waste sector in Centre for Science and Environment, said 100% points awarded to MCD for waste segregation cannot be true. “I have been living in Delhi for a long time and most of the segregation is done by the informal sector and waste pickers. The segregation level in the city would not be even 10% in reality. The survey should be more transparent and finding must be released for public feedback before rankings are fixed,” he said.

The survey also awarded 100% marks to MCD on the cleanliness of waterbodies falling in its areas.

An MCD spokesperson did not comment on the findings but the mayor’s office said cleanliness systems in the Capital were better than before. “According to the Swachh Survekshan-2023 report, Delhi has been ranked 28th this time among cities with a population of more than one million. Whereas according to the report of Swachh Survekshan 2022, north MCD ranked 37th, east MCD ranked 31st and south MCD ranked 28th. In such a situation, last year’s data clearly shows MCD has made a lot of improvement in the cleanliness system this year,” the office said in a statement.

To be sure, comparisons are incompatible due to the change in the bracketing of cities, the parameters and how responses were captured.

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said that under Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Delhi’s sanitation services have worsened. “We will run an expose-a-filthy-public-toilet campaign with public participation in social media,” he said.

Bharati Chaturvedi, environmentalist and founder of Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group, said MCD covers too big an area and they could have better results with smaller local bodies. “They should take a few districts and try to take them towards zero waste. People living in MCD areas need to be tightened much more as many of them do not segregate and most of them do not compost,” Chaturvedi said, adding that NDMC areas did well previously too and the latest report reflects continued good work.

Gurugram ranked poorly in the report with a rank of 140, with officials of the city’s civic body attributing the bad performance to the months-long strike by its sanitation workers. “The main reason for our drop in rankings is the strike by the sanitation workers,” said Naresh Kumar, joint commissioner of MCG.

Noida, meanwhile, has been judged the 14th cleanest city — the cleanest in Uttar Pradesh — while Ghaziabad ranked 38th among 446 urban local bodies.