A tale of clean cities: Insights for planning urban sanitation from Visakhapatnam, India (original) (raw)

 Until 2014, most resources for sanitation in Visakhapatnam were directed towards sewerage and wastewater treatment to address water scarcity, while efforts to extend access to the poorpart of national or state-level poverty reduction programmesremained far from the scale of the challenges.  Since 2014, the national missions 'Swachh Bharat' and 'Smart Cities' have boosted resources and political support for sanitation, leading to progress on faecal sludge management and roll out of an ambitious strategy to make the city open defecationfree, with a strong pro-poor orientation.  The leadership of the Municipal Commissioner, timely support from development partners, an enabling environment and wide stakeholder participation are key ingredients of the rapid success of the city.  Progress in sanitation has been guided by national programmes rather than by planning exercises. City sanitation planning efforts are underway in 2016, framed in a broader Smart City Plan.