Sometimes, good governance or good civic sense boils down to simple logic, that it is often pertinent to reward good behaviour. In Canacona, a group called Goenkar are doing just that, offering one kilogram of sugar in exchange for every kilo of plastic waste collected and deposited with them.
They first collected eight kilos of waste. A week later, they managed to collected 54 kilos. That is nearly seven times more than the first attempt. All this was done in front of the Canacona Municipal building. The group Goenkar should certainly be applauded, as too the people who came in diligently to deposit waste.
Goa is facing a serious waste management issue and sometimes it’s these grassroots initiatives that are the biggest solution providers. If every waddo and village could implement this programme or even offer a variation of it, there would be a lot of garbage collection at source. Not only that, but people get educated on how to manage waste themselves. Next stop: wet waste management and the creation of compost. But these are still early days.
Goenkar in Canacona has even asked the municipal council to manage their garbage collection better. This is pertinent because when the citizens band together for a good and honest cause like this, the authorities should listen. In fact, Goa should listen too.
