The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has been certified as Water Plus by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA) on Friday. It has become the first local body of Telangana to achieve this coveted status in the Swachh Bharat certifications, a press statement from GHMC said.
The certifications ranged from ODF (Open Defecation Free), ODF+, ODF++ and Water+, of which GHMC had already achieved ODF++ status.
For this certification, the GHMC was assessed through third party inspections against nine indicators, respectively with regard to safe discharge of sewage, safe cleaning practices, mechanical equipment support, treatment capacities, reuse of treated water, maintenance of drains, cost recovery, grievance redress mechanism, and establishment of sanitation authority and response units.
The statement from GHMC has attributed the certification to the 25 sewage treatment plants set up by the HMWS&SB and three by HMDA for treatment of waste water released from households and commercial establishments.
A total of 772 million litres of sewage per day is effectively treated in all these STPs, before being discharged, it claimed. The treated water is reused for parks, construction of roads, and public toilets before being let downstream for agricultural needs.
This is in line with the government’s focus on water conservation and reuse in consonance with Sustainable Development Goals on clean water and sanitation, the note said.