Governor Mridula Sinha is optimistic that Goa would become the first clean state in the country. She expressed this hope after taking part in a cleanliness drive at Mapusa, which is part of the all-India Swachh Bharat campaign. This is not an impossible dream because Goa is a small place and therefore easy to monitor. However, as pointed out by Deputy Chief Minister Francis de Souza, the problems are many. The chief concern voiced by de Souza is over garbage collection and disposal.
The state is in the process of building a garbage treatment plant at Saligao with a capacity to treat 100 tonnes of waste per day. However, with activists knocking on the doors of the National Green Tribunal to stall it, a blanket of uncertainty hangs over the plant. Sweeping dirt off the streets is laudatory, but unless a permanent solution is found for waste disposal, the effort will be reduced to transferring waste from one part of the state to another. Goa needs local as well as state-level solutions to waste disposal. In some cases composting pits might work, but as the quantum increases larger facilities are required to treat it. There is a lot of hope riding on the Saligao plant and should it pass through all the legal hurdles and prove to be successful, similar plants will become the norm and Goa will able to breathe easy.
