Sabbi Siva Rama Krishna, Municipal Commissioner, Tadipatri Municipality receiving the Award from Sameer Kochhar, Chairman, Skoch Group and M Ramachandran, Distinguished Fellow, Skoch Development Foundation

Now a days maintenance of a city in a clean and eco-friendly manner is a herculean task for any Urban Local Body (ULB). But, surprisingly there is one ULB where you can’t find a single plastic carry bag or heaps of garbage across the township. This is Tadipatri, situated in Anantapuramu District of Andhra Pradesh. It is interesting to understand how it went about securing this feat, the challenges it faced and best practices adopted to manage its waste.

Challenges

Tadipatri Municipality faced challenges of improper waste collection, dumps on the road margins, insufficient manpower, lack of technical knowledge, poor financial support, behavioural change etc. To overcome these, it involved all the stakeholders including NGOs, Self Help Groups (SHGs) and citizens. Many innovative and reformist measures were undertaken, which included, dividing the town into Zones followed by an extensive survey, preparation of micro-plan and implementation of programme in targeted areas.

Solution

It adopted best practices to maintain the ecological balance and create a liveable atmosphere in town by involving the community keeping in mind that the natural resources like soil and water are not to be polluted.

• It is a Dust Bin free city since 2006.
• 100 per cent Door-to-Door garbage collection is implemented with source segregation at a user charge of Rs 40 per month.
• 100 per cent ban on usage of plastic carry bags since 2006.
• 100 per cent coverage of individual households toilets. It is declared the first Open Defecation Free (ODF) city in Andhra Pradesh.
• More than 90 per cent of households are connected with underground drainage system.
• More than 1 lakh trees are planted and 1 lakh trees have survived since 2014.
• The Municipal vacent plots are converted into shopping complexes that fetch an income of Rs 1.25 crore per annum.
• The old dump yard is converted into new Municipal vegetable market at a cost of Rs 10 crore, fetching annual lease income of Rs 30 lakh.
• The unused vacant lands in three compost yards are utilised for commercial plantation and the expected income after 3 years is Rs 40 lakh per annum.
• Imposition of penalties for open urination and defecation, w.e.f., 30 September 2015.

Outcome

Approximately 40 MTs of garbage is generated and transported to compost yards every day. Over 25 MTs of wet waste is converted into organic waste by secondary source segregation using mechanised methods. The solid waste is processed in the method of Box Composting, Windrow Composting and Vermi Composting. Similarly, waste water is also being treated and supplied to the industries like GERDAU Steels and Ultratech Cement.

Out of both liquid and solid waste management, nearly R1 crore income is expected from the sale of recycled water and manure.

Awards & Honours

• Green Leaf Award 2012
• Clean India Award 2015
• Green Leaf Award 2015
• Clean Earth Award 2015
• The Best Performing ULB in Ananthapuramu District 2014,
• SKOCH Gold Award 2016
• SKOCH Order-of-Merit Award 2016
• The First Open Defecation Free Town Award 2016

It is said, “Rome was not built in a day, but Tadipatri became a national role model in one decade.”