Releasing a detailed analytical report on Uttarakhand’s performance in the Swachh Survekshan 2021 (SS21), the Social Development for Communities (SDC) Foundation articulated that the state has performed poorly at the national level in the survey and (ULBs) must bring systematic changes in Waste Management to improve the rankings in SS22 and tackle other upcoming waste-centric challenges in future. According to the report, the general performance of the state in various categories like Citizens Voice, Service Level Progress, Garbage Free Cities and Open Defecation Free (ODF) are far lower than the national Average. Uttarakhand got 1,531 scores out of 6,000 points in SS21 and the national average score is 2,072 that clearly shows the states overall poor performance in the survey at the national level. The report mentioned that though Dehradun has become the first city in the state with 82nd position to rank in the top 100 cities in the 1-10 lakh Population category, it should be noted that this position was achieved only amongst 369 cities and not amongst 4,320 cities that participated in SS21. Dehradun ranked 375 amongst these 4,320 cities. Such misunderstandings must not mislead people about the current sanitation situation of the cities across the state as it can be fatal for future sanitation efforts.
According to the report, the state generates annual waste of over 125 crore kilogramme excluding the waste generated by pilgrims and tourists and this quantity will certainly increase with the increasing footfalls of tourists when the projects like Delhi Dehradun economic corridor and the Char Dham All weather Road will get completed. According to the recommendations in the report, the ULBs first need to address the shortcomings found in SS21 and make efforts to improve the conditions irrespective of rankings attained in the survey. The administration should also implement policies like Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and tourism policy to facilitate waste management besides adopting sustainable waste management practices as the current system is inefficient and poses a consistent risk to public Health, the Environment and the economy.