Located on the banks of the Krishna, the city is intersected by three major irrigation canals that emanate from the Prakasam Barrage. The canals — Bandar, Ryves and Eluru — which are supposed to add beauty to the city's topography — continue to remain an eyesore thanks to denizens who dump garbage in them.
Several attempts have been made in vain by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation and district administration in the past to clean and rejuvenate the canals.
In yet another attempt to clean the canals and sensitise the public on the need to keep them free of garbage, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation has launched a month-long campaign under the State government's 'Mission Clean Krishna and Godavari Canals' to address the pollution caused due to discharge of sewage, trade effluents and other pollutants due to rapid urbanisation and industrialisation. The mission is chaired by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
On Tuesday, VMC chief Swapnil Dinakar Pundakar led an awareness rally in the city. He urged the public not to dump garbage and other waste in the city's canals. Mr. Swapnil stressed the need for creating awareness among the people residing on the canal bunds about the dumping of waste, plastics and liquid waste into the canals. He said every citizen of the city should take part in the mission.
As part of the campaign, the civic body has planned a series of awareness campaigns ranging from essay writing competitions to flash mobs and drives such as identifying houses without toilets within a radius of one kilometre of the canals, identifying all liquid waste let-off points on canal bunds, issuing notices to local vendors, commercial complexes and industries that dump garbage in canals, removing garbage heaps at the canal bunds and displaying warnings of legal action against violators.
The VMC has already conducted various awareness programmes since October 1 and is going to conduct more such programmes till October 31.
