Noida has emerged at the Cleanest Medium City in the Swachh Survekshan 2021, an annual survey of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation in cities and towns released by the Government of India. The Medium category includes cities with population of 3-10 lakh. In the rankings for 1-10 lakh, Noida was rated as the 4th cleanest city in the country and has also received a 5-star garbage-free city rating.
All this was possible mainly due to #CleanNoida that was launched in 2019 in partnership with NOIDA Authority to tackle the issue of solid waste management in the city. The programme aims to help the city emerge as one of the cleanest cities in India by driving behaviour change among citizens towards waste segregation and disposal, implementing technological innovation for effective waste collection and management, and transforming the city’s urban villages.
Clean NOIDA has successfully implemented high-impact initiatives to drive change across three broad areas since 2019. These include:
– Behaviour Change – implementing mass media and door-to-door campaigns and conducting events to drive behavior change in the citizens. Over 5 lakh citizens from 1.2 lakh households have been made aware of best practices to manage solid waste through these efforts.
– Technological Innovation – Set-up a state-of-the-art Integrated Command Control Centre to streamline city’s solid waste management mechanism covering waste collection, transportation, and remediation. The Center tracks over 370 waste collection and management vehicles daily leading to the collection of around 2000 tonnes of waste every day. Clean Noida also provided high-tech Litter Picking Machines and custom-made drain cleaning carts to help clean road-side legacy waste in the city and urban villages.
– Transforming Urban Villages – Chakachak Villages project to implement over 140 rapid, intensive cleaning drives in 62 urban villages of the city; Model Urban Villages project to transform eight urban villages into model villages with end-to-end waste management.
The above efforts have helped Noida consistently improve its rankings in the Swachh Survekshan since 2018. HCL Foundation, the CSR arm of HCL, is a supporter of the city in its mission to become a clean city since 2019. The foundation’s flagship program Clean NOIDA has been collaborating with the city authority to plan, design and implement effective Solid Waste Management initiatives in the city.
Ritu Maheshwari (IAS), CEO, Noida Authority says, “We are proud of this achievement and many congratulations to everyone who has been part of our efforts to emerge as one of the cleanest cities in the country. HCL Foundation has played a critical role in our overall mission by driving various efforts for bringing behaviour change among citizens, and implementing technological innovation and capacity building programmes. I urge them to continue to build technological solutions to help bridge gaps in the water system, drainage network and training programmes for Safai Mitras. These will definitely help Noida emerge as the cleanest city in India.”
