Swachh Worli Koliwada Logo

Swachh Worli Koliwada is a collaborative project conceptualized and initiated by the G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture in partnership with IDFC FIRST Bank, MCGM 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 MCGM team, and the community members of Worli Koliwada, this project seeks to develop a process model for a self-sustained, Zero-Waste neighbourhood.

The highlight of this project is that it rests on the firm foundation of a ‘Public-Private-Government-Enterprise Partnership’, with the stakeholders involved playing a key strategic role in shaping and implementing the project on ground – each bringing in their individual and collective expertise, experience and networks towards building participatory, ground-up processes. The Swachh Worli Koliwada project is one that is truly pioneering, as we are building a process model that can be sustained, scaled and replicated within our ward and eventually in our city.

theme, foundational spirit and driving force: ‘my neighbourhood my responsibility’
G South Ward generates around 210 metric tonnes of solid waste per day, with Worli Koliwada generating around 10 tonnes alone each day.

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

• bring community together and reinforce their sense of identity, belonging and ownership
through soft skills

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

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

• work together with the different agencies and stakeholders to rebuild a zero waste neighbourhood

• identify avenues for facilitating livelihood opportunities and equip the community with
the necessary skills


at a glance
• 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.