Kochi: The City Corporation is planning to submit sanitation projects for allocation of financial assistance from the Centre. This move comes in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of an ambitious multi-million dollar sanitation project that seeks to clean up around 1,000 towns in the country.
Mayor Tony Chammany told DC that sanitation projects initiated under the City Sanitation Plan (CSP) would be submitted to the Union government. “We are hopeful that the NDA government will include Kochi in the multi-million dollar sanitation project to be carried out in 1,000 cities. Kochi has an edge over other towns as the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) has already conducted a comprehensive study on the challenges in implementing sanitation projects with a focus on sewage treatment, which will help in preparing feasible proposals,” the Mayor said.
GIZ is only a knowledge partner providing technical assistance in executing sanitation projects, it has no financial commitments to the civic body. The German agency has recommended that only decentralised liquid waste treatment plants were ideal for Kochi due to the high groundwater table, canals, tides, population density and narrow roads. As per the former UPA government’s National Urban Sanitation Policy (NUSP) which was launched in 2008, GIZ has been assisting six cities in the country, including Kochi, in the preparation of the City Sanitation Plan.
The City Sanitation Plan is expected to help the City Corporation in improving sanitation in the urban areas and to make the city totally sanitised and livable. Debates continue on the possibility of reviving projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), which had been a major funding source.
