Aurangabad, Dec 2:
Aurangabad has become the first city of Maharashtra to join the ambitious UN-backed 'Cities Race to Resilence' campaign, said the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) administrator A K Pandey.
The campaign calls for urgent attention towards the need of finding solutions to emerging problems causing due to climate resilience, which is further leading to growth in pollution and disturbing the ecological balance. The cloudbursts, fluctuation in temperature, a spell of drought, upscale in seawater levels etc had become common. Hence to curb the pollution in the cities, the United Nations has launched an ambitious campaign. The campaign was participated by Aurangabad in October 2021. Officially, Aurangabad stood first in Maharashtra to sign an affidavit in this regard.
It may be noted that Aurangabad is also experiencing the impact of change in the climate. The city faced the flood-like situation, due to frequent cloudburst-like rainfall during the monsoon (July to September 2021).
Kham River project applauded
The AMC through public contribution had undertaken the Kham River Rejuvenation Project as an initiative to face climate resilience. The width of the riverbed was increased, silt and waste were removed to maintain a smooth flow of water, peaching works were done etc. There was heavy rainfall in the city from Aurangabad to September, but the stormy water did not enter into the houses of areas developed on the river bank. This saved the material loss. The pilot project has been emerged as a Model Project for all, claimed Pandey.
The other five cities to join campaign (from Maharashtra) are Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivli, Pune, Nashik, and Nagpur, it is learnt.