How a said “small town” in India led a revolution in waste management across 72 countries?

Indore, a city in India’s Madhya Pradesh known for its Poha and Jalebi, has now earned recognition for its super clean streets and localities. Recently, Indore has been ranked number 1 consecutively for the 4th time in Government of India, Swacch Bharat Survekshan.

“Indore Model” has been a huge hit in the country but is also Internationally acknowledged. In 2019, the International Forum for Sustainable Development Asia and Pacific conference,Tokyo. 52 asian and 20 african countries promised to adopt stems of Indore’s cleanliness model in their systems, which has put the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh on the International map.

Earlier, like many cities in India had large dumpsters and not so efficient cleaning routine. People did not take cleanliness so seriously and sanitisation was only a “government responsibility.”

Here are 5 steps that changed Indore’s avatar in the last few years.

1. Public participation involved: Rather than a government’s movement, swachata was made a “people’s movement”. Public was made aware, through repeated catchy jingles, walls in the city were painted with limericks, strict fines were executed with offenders, waste segregation was promoted, sanitisation workers were given responsibility for blocks in the city. Some, residents acted as citizen journalists through Indore 311 application, their reports and complains were published in local newspapers to bring authorities to action.

2. Bought changes in the way Garbage was collected and dumped: Indore administration installed a door-to-door waste collection system in the city with 30 lakh people. Every Indori would remember waking up to “Indore rahega number one” jingle, that was played on loop on the garbage vans. They also made it compulsory for residents to segregate wet and dry waste which were disposed of in separate compartments. Clean dustbins were set up in every nook and corner of the city. Spitting was strictly monitored and fined.

3. The dry waste recycled and wet waste decomposed: The dry waste in Indore is collected and separated at 10 nodal points for recycling. Plastis poly bags are strictly prohibited. If any, they are recyclable. The trenching ground near Indore is transformed into a city forest and garden. City Locals twice a week make compost out of wet waste from their household, installed at local gardens, schools and hotels and give them to the municipal corporation for distribution. Around 35 tonnes of wet waste is treated daily at two facilities near Indore and 1300 kg bio-CNG is produced per day which is utilised in the pollution free local city buses.

4. Building efficient sewer system: Unlike other cities, waterlogging is no problem in Indore. The streets are free of solid wastes which don’t choke the drains. Around 350 million litres of domestic sewage is chlorinated and treated at three different plants and disposed of in the Kanha, which is fit to use in irrigation and power generation in nearby dams.

5. Night Cleaning: Unlike other cities, the streets in Indore are cleaned and vacuumed in the night. Indore adopted this practice from Gujrat’s Surat. This way the workers aren’t interrupted while cleaning.

In the last few years, Indore has set an example for other cities in the country, that if people and government choose to work together, they can achieve something extraordinary. Now, the innovations from this small city is inspiring changes in the global landscape.