GUNTUR: The Guntur Municipal Corporation has achieved a majority of short-term targets in the five parameters it has taken in the master eco-budget passed by the council in March 2006, the four-nation workshop observed on Wednesday.

Improving the quality of drinking water supply by GMC was the top priority and the short-term eco-budget target of maintaining the uniform chlorination at the end-point and plugging the leaks in pipelines could be achieved to some extent. Mayor Kanna Nagaraju pointed out that some of the tanks and reservoirs that were not desilted for more than half a century were taken up as part of the programme. Municipal Commissioner D. Rama Rao in his presentation said 14 quality parameters were being monitored and in a couple of days when the Mobile Water Testing kits (Jalatara approved by UNICEF) arrived in the city 30 samples each at two places in the city could be taken up.

ICLEI Europe Technical Coordinator Andrea Burzacchini said it was time the Guntur Corporation prepared the master eco-budget for 2007 by February with a three-moth leeway for the delay in procedure to get council approval. The monitoring and accounting of eco budget both in terms of targets and finance was important, he opined.

Even before the results or achievements vis-à-vis set targets were got the second year's budget could be approved and targets set by the council for physical achievement of eco budget targets. The economic budget of the GMC could either coincide with the eco-budget periodicity or vary, he said and gave the option to the Guntur local body.

Measuring instrument

Municipal Commissioner suggested the programme support a measuring instrument for air quality at a cost of Rs.2 lakhs, which would be decided at Thursday's meeting on financial part of eco-budget. The eco-Budget Asia Financial Manger Manijeh Morshedi would review financial aspects.

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