Coimbatore: More than 65% people seems to be happy with the services provided by the city corporation. At least, that’s what a survey done by Nature Conservancy, a charitable environmental organisation, along with Keystone Foundation and Kovai Kulangal Padukappu Amaipu, shows.
The survey was done to understand peoples’ take on the smart city project, which also involves rejuvenation of waterbodies. The city was selected for the survey as it boasts of a large number of wetland ecosystem. Water crisis was another reason.
The five-month long survey covered a total of 2,000 respondents from wards 20, 21 and 76 near Krishnampathi tank; wards 78,79 and 83 near Selvachinthamani lake; wards 84, 85 and 86 near Ukkadam lake; and wards 61, 63 and 75 near Singanallur tank.
When sought about the quality of services in areas of public health, sanitation, roads, street lights, lake management, water supply, parks, solid waste management and schools, more than 65% respondents said the civic body was providing good quality of service.
“According to them, the civic body is doing well in all fronts and the only area of concern was solid waste management,” said R Balasubramanian, professor of agricultural economics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), who reviewed the survey.
Majority of respondents were also concerned about the maintenance of waterbodies after their restoration. More than 80% people said solid wastes were dumped into lakes and sewage was getting mixed with lake water.
Pointing out that majority of respondents have expressed the feeling that it was the responsibility of civic body to maintain the waterbodies, the professor said they had suggested that the city corporation could take help from NGOs to maintain them.
During a group discussion, 60% respondents had evinced interest to clean lakes. And more than 40% of them were ready to donate money for lake rejuvenation project. Balasubramanian, however, pointed out that only four people had turned up to clean Valankulam lake on June 4. “Similarly, only 10% respondents have donated money and the average amount was just 5.”
R Manikandan of Kovai Kulangal Padukappu Amaipu attributed this to lack of awareness among the people. “Awareness among urban people is lower than people who live in the outskirts. People in urban areas have not faced real drought and they do not have much connect with waterbodies. Only a few enthusiasts and nature conservers are volunteering to clean the lakes,” he said.