MARGAO
An audit of the Margao Municipal Council’s lone 5TPD bio-methanation plant at the SGPDA retail market in July 2022 had come up with startling revelations --- that the plant was in operation sans consent to operate from the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB); there’s a mismatch between the waste utilized in the plant, gas generated and consumed, and the electrical power generated and that the plant operator was struggling with the disposal of the digested slurry.
Around 15 months later, the ground reality hasn’t changed for the better. Last week’s inspection of the bio-methanation plant by Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira and the GSPCB team have unearthed the same old issues plaguing the plant “ that the plant is operating without GSPCB’s consent to operate and that the plant has no wherewithal to dispose of the digested slurry.
Indeed, the Rs 2.4 crore bio-methanation plant commissioned with much fanfare by the civic body exactly two years in 2021 with a promise to generate electricity and revenue amounting to Rs three lakhs a month, is back under the scanner of the Pollution Control Board.
That’s not all. The Margao Municipal Council seemed to have been caught on the wrong foot once again as the Audit’s recommendations to handle the slurry and utilize the power generated by the plant have gone abegging over the last 15 months.
Consider this. A Goa State Pollution Control Board’s show cause notice issued to the Margao Municipality recently stating that the plant is running sans consent to operate indicates that the civic body did nothing since July 2022 when the Audit report was made available to the MMC till date on the question of obtaining the GSPCB consent to operate.
The MMC and the project proponent seemed to have been caught on the wrong foot on the question of finding alternate means to dispose of the slurry generated by the bio-methanation plant after the PWD, Sewerage department refused to accept the slurry at the STP plants at Margao and Vasco.
It was only after the GSPCB show cause notice went to the MMC that things have started moving, to obtain the consent to operate the plant and request the Goa Waste Management Corporation to accept the slurry at the Effluent Treatment plant of the Cacora Waste treatment plant.
Since the time the plant was commissioned in November 2021, the Margao Municipal Council has not tapped the power generated by the biomethanation plant. It was only recently that the MMC Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar has written do the Power department for the purchase of power generated by the biomethanation plant.
Friday’s inspection of the bio-methanation plant was conducted by the new Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira following a complaint lodged by Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai and local residents. Incidentally, the Minister informed the media during the inspection that when he had inquired with the Margao Municipal officials on the state of the bio-methantion plant, he was told that the plant was running in perfect condition. Sequeira, however, realized to his shock and surprise that that the spot he has inspected was just a shed minus a plant.
