A couple of green and blue bins filled with flowers and banners that read ‘Clean Canals, Green Vijayawada; Let’s Restore Lifelines of the City’ can be seen near the bridges of the three canals that run though Vijayawada.
The bins are exclusively for collecting puja material and flower waste, says Obeswara Rao, Sanitary Supervisor in the Public Health department of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC). Around 500 kg of flower waste was collected on the Vinayaka Chavithi, according to the official.
“On each of the bridges built over the three canals, we have placed 5-6 bins of 60 and 80 litre capacity. Since it is the time of Ganesh-idol immersions, we have deployed a couple of sanitary workers, too, on every bridge to ensure that people are not disposing of plastic bags or flowers,” Mr. Obeswara Rao said, adding that the waste thus collected will be taken to a compost plant in Ajit Singh Nagar, where they will be recycled to make incense sticks.
The initiative, part of a series of measures taken up by the VMC to make the city and its waterbodies plastic-free, has largely received good response from the public.
Some, however, continue to flout the norms. One can see flowers scattered in the Eluru canal. Raju, working at a shoe shop near the Lenin Centre near Eluru canal, said, “Though there are iron meshes on the railing of the bridge, some people continue to immerse idols and flowers.” But, he added that such instances are few.
To this, Mr. Obeswara Rao said, “Some people are particular about immersing the idol with all the garlands. We have asked the workers not to hurt their sentiments. But, we are happy to note that a majority of people in Vijayawada have begun to realise the importance of keeping of our waterbodies clean.”
