Margao Municipal Council has been suffering from the never ending problems of garbage coming from the adjoining panchayats. This itself makes up for tonnes of garbage going to the plant every day. The Davorlim, Navelim, Rumdamol, Curtorim Benaulim and other adjoining panchayat areas have only been giving construction licences for big commercial projects but have no road map on how to handle the daily waste generated by them.
Every successive MLA and Council of Margao has promised to solve the garbage problem of the Margao town which has got worst over time. As a duty the Council is responsible to undertake scientific treatment of garbage generated by the town. However neither the MMC has succeeded to get the segregation done at source nor it has been able to get the waste disposed off scientifically.
Since April the screening of the Sonsodo dump has begun and over 30% of the age old dump has been segregated by the screening machines. However the reality is that the dump is going nowhere, thanks to the agreement of the MMC with the Fomento Green, there has been literally 0% scientific disposal of waste at the plant. The results are seen now, as high as 60 to 70% of the waste was being emptied into the dump without even stabilization.
It had equally treacherous consequences, the rotten waste coupled with precipitation or moisture made its way to the ground water polluting the water bodies and ground water around.
Who is to be blamed for this, is what all are wondering and has been debated n number of times by the city fathers. According to some the plant should have been set up on the condition of handling mixed waste which is not happening now. The plant officials maintain that the concession agreement mandates MMC to supply segregated waste to the MMC and this is stalling the entire process. With a capacity of well over the present garbage influx, the plant has been only drying the waste inside and dumping it back outside.
The MMC in 2016 had started working on a segregated waste collection system planned by themselves. Daily wage laborers doing door to door collection were asked to collect waste from the household’s i.e. dry waste and wet waste separately. The people too were urged to do so and store the dry waste in the black bins. The dry garbage was collected by separate trucks and was being taken to the Sonsodo. The MMC also successfully had set up transit stations from where the dry waste and also the wet waste could be picked by the garbage trucks. The system went well for some months but it was too late when the MMC realised that the collection of waste is mixed rather than segregated which diluted the entire purpose of having the system.
The major spoiler for all the garbage related initiatives to fail is the lack of infrastructure that the MMC has been facing for years together. “The MMC in the month of March 2016 had got 2 truck’s which were supposed to be exclusively used for collection of segregated waste. Thereafter in June 2016 an additional fleet of 7 rickshaws were inaugurated for the waste management, even after that the segregated waste collection has not started till date. It looks like the lack of will than the lack of Infrastructure that the MMC is now suffering” said Savio Coutinho.
Margao Municipal Council has been suffering from the never ending problems of garbage coming from the adjoining panchayats. This itself makes up for tonnes of garbage going to the plant every day. The Davorlim, Navelim, Rumdamol, Curtorim Benaulim and other adjoining panchayat areas have only been giving construction licences for big commercial projects but have no road map on how to handle the daily waste generated by them. The Rumdamol and Davorlim panchayat has been dumping their waste shamelessly on the eastern bypass road shaming the entire state. It has not stopped and neither attempt has been made to solve it.
Earlier during an inspection of the Garbage dump TCP Minister and his team intercepted 2 trucks full of fresh garbage being dumped into the Sonsodo dump. Frustrated of the act the Minister said that they will be cordoning off the dump and separating the dump and the plant. The MMC meanwhile has resolved to do the same. The Chairperson of Margao Babita Angle at the Municipal Council Meeting said “Probably because the garbage comes in mixed form the reject which was supposed to be 20% is much more. But it is also a fact that when rains are over we can’t start work on a site which is non stabilized garbage. Hence we have decided to cordon off the site so that fresh garbage doesn’t come to the dump and is stabilized beyond the dump” said Babita. “Now that the old stabilized dump is being segregated and the covering of the dump has begun there will be relief from leachate. This is because of the covering of dump with non percolation membrane” she added.
TCP Minister Vijai expressing anguish said “We have 2 screens working here at the dump and have cleared almost 25% of the dump in 1 and a half month. If tones of fresh waste will be dumped into the stabilized dump everyday then it is a waste of effort” said Vijai.
TCP Minister Vijai said “We have fought for it and have got clearance for the land fill site here at Sonsodo. Sadly, for the last 1 and a half month there has been no progress.
With such a negative track record of garbage handling by MMC the A class municipality will have to put in Himalayan effort to get the garbage problems solved until the proposed Verna plant gets started.
Team TNV
