Authority takes a pledge to improve sanitation in city

The authority, on October 2, 2018, had declared Noida an open-defecation free (ODF) city. The declaration came after the construction of 84 new toilets and 45 additional mobile toilets

The Noida authority, while celebrating the city’s 43rd Foundation Day, took a pledge to make Noida a neat and clean city.

Cattle seen at the site of a garbage dump, at sector 100, in Noida (Virendra Singh Gosain/HT PHOTO)

The authority chief executive officer Alok Tandon directed the health department to take multiple steps so that the city becomes clean. The authority staff also performed a puja to celebrate the city’s birthday.

“The CEO has fixed deadlines for each task that we need to achieve within certain timelines. We have a target to improve on many fronts, including door-to-door waste collection system, ensuring waste segregation and creating more public toilets across the city, among others,” RK Singh, officer on special duty, Noida authority, said.

The authority, on October 2, 2018, had declared Noida an open-defecation free (ODF) city. The declaration came after the construction of 84 new toilets and 45 additional mobile toilets. On Wednesday, it set a target to declare the city as “ODF Plus” October 2, 2019, and also make it eligible for a three-star rating, in terms of collection and treatment of city’s waste, by September this year, officials said.

“The title of ODF Plus means that after making the city free of open defecation, we will now focus on developing more urinals so that people do not urinate in the open. We aim to create urinals wherever there is a requirement,” Singh said.

Apart from that, the authority aims to start door-to-door collection of solid waste across the city by June 2019.

“We aim to ensure that we start collection of green waste, medical waste and wet waste in separate bags so that the treatment becomes easier and cleaner. We will ensure that waste is not seen littered on roads,” Singh said.

The authority will also ensure that the waste is segregated at generation (households or other places). The CEO has also directed the staff to clean the city’s drains, so that there is no overflow or waterlogging during the monsoon, unlike the situation in 2018, when residents had to face waterlogging in many areas.