MARGAO
Total Sonsodo legacy waste dump “ 2,31,239.76 cubic metres. Waste remediated by the contractor to date “ 1,25,483.00 cubic metres. The balance of legacy waste at Sonsodo is 1,05,756.76 cubic metres.
That’s the plain equation staring at the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) and the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) as the High Court, in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) writ petition filed by Citizens for Sonsodo, through its secretary Roque Mascarenhas, has set the deadline to the two agencies to remediate the Sonsodo legacy dump by February 28, 2023.
With the High Court directing the contractor, as also the GWMC and the Margao Municipal Council to take all steps as are necessary to ensure that this legacy waste dump is positively cleared by February 28, 2023, the countdown has begun for the GWMC and the MMC to prepare a road map how to remediate the legacy dump and rid Sonsodo of the eye sore in the next five months.
Sources said the GWMC has called a meeting with officials of the Margao Municipal Council and the contractor to take stock of the situation in the light of the High Court’s directions and to ensure that work on the remediation of the Sonsodo dump yard is completed in all respects by the end of February.
The target before the GWMC and MMC is simple “ how to remediate the balance of the Sonsodo legacy dump in the next five months. The February 28, 2023, deadline set by the High Court to remediate the legacy dump coincides with the GWMC report stating that the balance waste of 1,05,756.76 cubic metres is required to be remediated latest by Feb 28, 2023, by the contractor.
With the monsoons showing signs of retreating, with no heavy rains reported in the State over the last few days, sources informed that the GWMC may get the contractor to remove the plastic sheets covering the legacy dump and mobilize the machinery to resume the remediation work.
The biggest worry, however, that may come to haunt the GWMC as well as the Margao municipality officials is the lifting away of the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) from Sonsodo to the cement factories in Karnataka.
The delay in lifting away the RDF generated by the remediation of the legacy dump has created a mound of RDF at Sonsodo, which has since been covered with plastic sheets.
“The mound of waste found covered at Sonsodo is not only the legacy dump. A portion of the waste consists of the RDF, which is awaiting transportation to the Karnataka-based cement factories,” the official said.
He added: “Unlike in the past, we have to wait for the nod from the cement companies in Karnataka to send the RDF to the factories. Hence, though the legacy dump has been remediated to a great extent, the RDF has remained at the dump sit.”
Compounding the problem of RDF disposal is the failure of the Margao Municipal Council to identify suitable land to store the RDF before the same is transported to the Karnataka-based cement factories. An MMC official, however, pointed out that though the civic body was mandated to provide a site for storage of the RDF, no site could be made available to the GWMC to date, partly due to agitation by citizens and farmers.
HIGH COURT WARNING
The Managing Director of GWMC and the Chairperson of the Margao Municipal Council shall be held personally responsible for non-compliance with these directions because despite granting ample time and opportunities, both these authorities have, to date, failed to sort out this issue of remediation of the legacy dump.
This position is made clear in advance because there is a tendency on the part of the authorities to blame the contractor and the contractor to blame the authorities. This has to stop at some stage. It is for the authorities and the contractor to find solutions to their problems. But, under no circumstances to delay the work any further in any case, beyond February 28, 2023, asserted the High Court bench comprising Justice Bharat P Deshpande and Justice M S Sonak.
“We post this matter for further consideration on December 21, 2022. On this date, if we find that there is no substantial progress or that the circumstances suggest that this work may not be completed by February 28, 2023, then, we will decide upon a further course of action to be adopted in this matter,” the court stated.
