The vexed garbage issue has been dodging the State for many a decade and most of the planning and strategizing that has occurred through these years has largely remained on paper. Successive governments have failed to tackle the rampant garbage dumping across nooks and corners of the State, despite the fact that it’s been an eyesore and an embarrassment with tourists returning to their hometowns with this dirty picture of Goa. Authorities have haplessly watched while heaps of garbage littered our streets and villages.
Government’s new policy on solid waste management is another innovative idea of tackling the problem, albeit at the surface. In what is seen as a ‘holistic’ approach, government has now knocked the doors of religious leaders to reach out to the masses. Also on the anvil is public awareness through door-to-door campaigns, community rallies, signature campaigns, street plays and cleanup drives in schools and colleges, involving tourism stakeholders and a major media campaign. It appears that all the options have been exhausted, but the million dollar question would continue to linger in our minds: Will this be enough to rid Goa of its garbage?
Going by past records, plans are ambitious but tackling garbage is easier said than done. Government has a history of drawing up extraordinary plans, but with very little coverage on the ground. What about facilities? Before any awareness campaign takes off, government must provide adequate facilities for garbage disposal. The moot cause of litter is because there is no mechanism or facilities for easy garbage disposal and any plan towards tackling garbage should start with this basic infrastructure. Public outreach programmes and drives can only be successful when you have done your groundwork first.
Goa has been recently emulating systems from countries like Singapore, Japan and Dubai but our ground conditions are not even a fraction close to these nations and any template will be a sure failure if there is no strict enforcement down the line.
If we may recall, government had as many as eight false starts to the plastic ban and even the recent one introduced by the CCP in the capital city has turned out to be a farce. If government is banning plastic, there needs to be an alternative in place. It’s a mockery if polypropylene-based bags which are made out of potentially toxic industrial chemicals such as butane, benzene and vinyl acetate replace the plastic bags. Let’s not rest on these ‘paper policies’. It’s time to look at the larger picture and the tricky issues at hand. Creating awareness is not going to help much, Goans are well aware of the garbage menace. Provide options and create infrastructure first.
