From cleaning wards and roping in external agencies, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has made every effort to make the city clean. The latest in the bucket of cleanliness campaign is 'Desilting of Kharicut Canal'. But, experts say proposal is an eyewash and has zero sustainability.
The Kharicut canal issue is decade-old and the canal is literally turned in to a drainage pit over the years. The civic body will be cleaning the river, remove the silt from the canal. While launching the project on May 1, mayor Gautam Shah said AMC is going to remove 81,000 metric tonne of garbage from it.
"The canal is an open drain. It has too many drain connections. The filth has over millions of litre of sewage. There is no future of the mega cleanliness drive," said Manish Vaidya, an environmentalist. "The campaign is just for time being. After a month, they will forget it and it will also be erased from the memory of people," added Vaidya.
Similarly, Mahesh Pandya, another environmentalist, questioned: "Why have they taken the task? How many farmers are still dependent on Kharicut canal for irrigation. What took AMC so many years to take initiative?"
However, several sources in the AMC, who take a lesson from the past, believe the campaign has no future. The canal passes through eight wards and every ward different issues. The location of the sewage treatment plants have not been finalised and the drainage water flows into the canal. Senior AMC councillor said the campaign is a waste of money. "It's a waste of money. Does AMC have the manpower to clean the canal regularly? We are aware that how much AMC struggles to provide the basic obligatory services. There is no future of the campaign"
"The civic body is happy and satisfied punishing one person who caught throwing garbage, but they have no clue how the industrial waste is flowing in the canal and how to stop it," said Bakshi.
However, mayor Gautam Shah sees the campaign as differently. "The canal was a factory of mosquitoes which lead to diseases. After cleaning of the canal, it will set an example of clean Ahmedabad." Shah didn't respond to the query regarding how many illegal connections have been identified after launch of the campaign.
Over the years, the state government is making tall claims for the beautification of the canal. In the last financial year, the state government made an announcement of allocation of Rs 100 crore for beautification and re-development of the canal.
EXPERT SPEAK
Pravin Patel, standing committee chairman, said: “This will definitely increase the capacity of water storage. After the cleaning and by removing silt, the canal will be deep by three to four feet. Beautification of the space is also under consideration.”
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