Hyderabad first urban body in Telangana to get ‘Water Plus’ city tag

HYDERABAD: After successfully retaining the ODF++(open defecation free) certification, Hyderabad has now been declared ‘Water Plus’ city, making it the first urban local body in Telangana to achieve the tag.
The Union ministry of housing and urban affairs on Friday announced the certification after examining the proposal submitted by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for the Swachh Bharat Mission Water Plus City Certification under Swachh Survekshan 2021.
This certification is given to cities that achieve safe and sustainable sanitation by ensuring that no untreated wastewater is discharged into water bodies, ensuring adequate capacity of sewage treatment facilities apart from using treated and recycled water.

The final field assessment report by the Union ministry reveals that certification was achieved after the inspection teams checked various indicators including safe discharge of sewage or septage (faecal sludge), safe cleaning of sewer and septic tanks through mechanised equipment and availability of PPEs and safety equipment in case of manual entry in unavoidable circumstances, re-use of treated water, among other factors.
However, contrary to the assessment report which shows that city has passed all the indicators that need to be checked to achieve the ‘Water Plus’ certificate, experts pointed out how the situation on ground was different in several cases.
Meanwhile, while appreciating the efforts of the those responsible for achieving the feat, municipal administration and urban development minister KT Rama Rao tweeted, “Congratulations to the citizens of#Hyderabad on our city getting the coveted “Water plus” status of Swachh Bharat Mission from Govt of India. Hyderabad is already recognised as ODF++ city. We will continue to endeavour to make it cleaner & greener (sic).”