Cleanliness is seldom glamorous. But in Vidarbha, a handful of local initiatives are quietly producing results. In cities and towns across this region, municipal bodies and researchers are executing projects that turn waste into resources, mobilise citizens, and deliver survey-ranked gains. The examples below reveal how administrative consistency and targeted action can translate into measurable change. This article highlights four such efforts, all anchored in the Vidarbha region, and describes what they are doing and how they are succeeding.

The reader will see that clean-city campaigns are not empty slogans but real operations involving infrastructure, community participation, and performance metrics. Here is a listicle of four local cleanliness initiatives in Vidarbha that are already having a positive impact.

1. Chandrapur’s MDDS-based Faecal Sludge Plant Turning Waste into Manure

In October 2025, Chandrapur Municipal Corporation and CSIR-NEERI inaugurated a Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM) plant using a Mechanical Dewatering and Drying System (MDDS). This plant treats 65,000 litres of septage per day, removes pathogens, and recovers nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. The end product is organic manure that satisfies the standards of the Fertiliser Control Order. The innovation is backed by the Indo-European Horizon 2020 project “PAVITR” and support from India’s Department of Science and Technology.

The plant addresses a gap in sanitation infrastructure because many households in Indian cities do not connect to sewers and depend on septic tanks. The MDDS setup dries and filters sludge, making it safer for reuse and reducing contamination of groundwater. The project cost was modest (a ₹40 lakh grant) and demonstrates how an urban locality in Vidarbha can transform a sanitation liability into a soil input resource. Early reports also note that the treated water is being used for gardening and floriculture in local spaces. This initiative stands out as a model for combining sanitation, resource recovery, and innovation.

2. Nagpur’s “Clean Diwali, Happy Diwali” Drive with 102 Collection Centres

Nagpur Municipal Corporation launched a focused waste management campaign from 12 to 18 October 2025, called “Clean Diwali, Happy Diwali.” Under this effort, 102 special collection centres were established across all ten city zones, inviting citizens to deposit old or unused items such as clothes, utensils, furniture, toys, books, plastic goods, and e-waste. Simultaneously, four-colour-coded bins were introduced for waste segregation.

For bulky items like beds, sofas, and cupboards, NMC arranged home pick-ups upon request. The campaign also included dedicated e-waste collection facilities to divert such waste streams from landfills. Municipal officials emphasised reuse: items in good condition are to be passed to those in need.

The campaign reflects how a city in Vidarbha can mobilise public participation at scale during a festival season, reduce pressure on landfill systems, and promote sorting at source.

3. Chandrapur’s Leap in Swachh Survekshan: 3-Star Rating and ODF++ Status

Chandrapur, long known as pollution-intensive due to industries and thermal power plants, has made a turnaround in urban cleanliness rankings. In the Swachh Survekshan 2024–25 survey, Chandrapur ranked 21st among big cities nationally and became the top performer in Vidarbha (after Amravati in the same state). The city scored 9,878 out of the possible marks and earned a 3-Star Garbage-Free City (GFC) rating, along with ODF++ (Open Defecation Free Plus Plus) certification. The metrics where Chandrapur excelled include door-to-door waste collection, source segregation, and cleanliness in residential and market zones. The city scored perfect marks in those categories.

However, challenges remain: water-body cleanliness and public toilet maintenance scored lower (50 % and 69 % respectively). The city’s performance indicates that even in traditionally polluted zones, disciplined incremental work can yield national-level gains. Smaller cities across Vidarbha have also taken inspiration; Butibori being among them.

4. Butibori’s National Showing Among Small Cities in Swachh Survekshan

Butibori, a smaller municipality in Vidarbha, made an impression in the Swachh Survekshan rankings of 2024–25 by securing 17th place nationally in the small cities category, scoring around 10,025 points. The rank is noteworthy for a town of its scale, showing that cleanliness efforts are not restricted to metropolitan civic bodies. Its performance reflects strong execution of door-to-door collection, waste segregation, and maintenance of cleanliness in residential and commercial cores. The town’s standing sends a signal that municipal governance in smaller jurisdictions in Vidarbha can deliver high standards in solid waste management, garner citizen cooperation, and compete with more advanced cities.

It also suggests that scale is not necessarily a barrier to achieving performance in civic sanitation. The Butibori example reinforces that local agencies across Vidarbha are capable of delivering credible results under national surveys.

The examples above show that sustained, structured approaches to cleanliness in Vidarbha are making a difference. Each initiative depends on combining infrastructure, citizen engagement, and periodic assessments. They operate within constraints of funding, capacity, and existing urban stress. What is emerging across Vidarbha is a pattern that local governments are integrating waste processing, resource recovery, and regular surveys into their working systems.

The momentum may not be uniform across all sectors, but the direction is clear that cleanliness is becoming a measurable, accountable domain in Vidarbha’s urban planning. The successes do not erase the challenges ahead, but they do confirm that change is possible through steady effort capitalised by local innovation and public cooperation.