How Noida’s villages are turning colorful, one wall at a time

In a step to encourage people to adopt best waste management practices, the Noida Authority is turning walls in rural regions into canvases with the message: “keep the city clean”.

The artwork has been done on public walls including boundary walls of parks and government school in the villages. Apart from this, some artwork has also been carried out on boundary walls of villagers’ houses and shops.

As per official data, Noida produces 900 metric tonne of waste daily.

To help the city improve its cleanliness, the Noida Authority had undertaken several such initiatives to encourage people to follow the waste management practices, including door-to-door waste collection, waste segregation, starting waste-to-compost plants in residential areas and creating waste-to-art installations.

Seven villages located along the Noida-Greater Noida expressway are beneficiaries of this makeover. These include Raipur Khadar (near sector 126), Rohillapur (near sector 132), Bakhtawarpur (near sector 127), Nagla Nagli (near sector 135), Nagli Sakpur (near Sector 133), Asgarpur (near sector 131) and Sultanpur (near sector 128). The project was started in October last year at Raipur Khadar village and the most recent project at Nagla Nagli village was completed last week.

“We take permissions from the villagers before we paint on a house or a shop’s wall. We also create awareness among the villagers regarding the slogans and the message that our art sought to convey. For example, in Nagli Sakpur we have created artwork on waste segregation and also informed villagers how they can use wet waste for compost,” said Tarunima Bajpai from EcoSwop Solutions that was roped in for the artwork. The project is funded by tech major HCL as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) obligation.

Mahesh, a resident of Raipur Khadar village said that since the group painted his shop, it had not been defaced. “People used to spit and urinate on the behind my shop earlier but it has stopped now since the wall has been painted,” he said.

“We do not want villages left out of the beautification work,” said Ritu Maheshwari, CEO, Noida Authority.