Swachh Worli Koliwada

Swachh Worli Koliwada is a collaborative project conceptualized and initiated by G5A in partnership with IDFC FIRST Bank, BMC G South Ward and the Worli Koliwada community.

Launched on June 05, 2018 (World Environment Day) in the presence of our Deputy Mayor and Corporator, Smt. Hemangi Worlikar, IDFC FIRST Bank team, G South Ward BMC team, and the community members of Worli Koliwada, this project develops a process model for a self-sustained, Zero-Waste neighborhood.

In Phase 1, we are working at a pilot site within Worli Koliwada.
Under the motto ‘My Neighbourhood, My Responsibility’ we work towards:

•    bringing the community together and reinforcing their sense of identity, belonging, and ownership through soft skills

•    reinforcing social awareness, especially around the issue of solid waste, with an emphasis on the importance of waste segregation 

•    developing participatory, ground-up processes and systems, along with the community, BMC and experts, to implement sustainable solid waste management solutions

•    collaboration with different agencies and stakeholders to rebuild a zero-waste neighborhood

•    identifying avenues for facilitating livelihood opportunities to equip the community with the necessary skills
  

•    This project aims to galvanize the urban and cultural revitalization of Worli Koliwada – a 65-acre fishing village inhabited for generations by the earliest residents of Mumbai – as a model that is adaptable, scalable and replicable for other urban villages or gaothans in Mumbai.

•    An inclusive, multi-pronged approach will address aspects of community participation within the Koliwada, amenities, safety and accessibility, heritage and culture, environment and productivity through a civic and arts- based approach.

•    As a low-income community on the periphery of infrastructural and municipal priorities, the project will forge strategic partnerships that realign creative, civic and community forces. It will tackle current urban challenges and create opportunities using culture and technology as key tools for community empowerment.

A vibrant and self-sustaining Worli Koliwada is central to our vision for the community’s development and sustenance. Their history, stories, dreams and aspirations must therefore fuel the engines of urban transformation for a future that is sustainable – economically, environmentally, culturally and socially.