MARGAO
As the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant-headed High Powered Coordination Committee (HPCC) on the vexed Sonsodo issue is set to meet on Monday, Madgavkars may have a simple to ask for the Powers that be “ will the HPCC, which must have had umpteen meetings over the last one decade, offer any fresh hope to bring about a turnaround at the Sonsodo waste dumping site?
This question assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of the fact that while the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) submitted an Action Plan for Sonsodo to the High Court in April, the civic body seemed still groping in the dark on the question of how it intends to go about in the treatment of the 35 tonnes of wet waste generated in the city.
For, while the Action Plan for Sonsodo submitted to the High Court promises to put in place a mechanism for dry waste baling, construction of platforms for windrows, firefighting mechanism, carting out the piled up waste etc, the MMC is yet to speak its mind out on the treatment of the daily wet waste.
This question assumes significance since the Margao civic body is sending around 10 tonnes of the daily wet waste to the Saligao treatment plant for want of any mechanism at Sonsodo to treat the waste.
The question further assumes significance and comes against the announcement made by Waste Management Minister Atanasio Babush Monserrate in April last year to set up two 25TPD bio-digesters at Sonsodo within 18 months. As things stand today, it’s now 12 months since Monserrate handed out the promise, throwing up questions about whether the two plants will take shape within the next six months or whether the MMC has other plans up its sleeves to address the Sonsodo imbroglio.
A glance at the Action Plan submitted by the MMC shows that while a host of measures have been proposed at Sonsodo, the civic body has shed no light on the moot question of how it will go about in the treatment of the daily wet waste. This has thrown up a question of whether the MMC is eyeing the Cacora waste treatment plant to treat the city’s daily wet waste assuming the plant, after commissioning, falls short of the waste for treatment.
Incidentally, soon after the Waste Management Minister announced that the government would take over the waste management operations at Sonsodo, the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) set in motion the process of floating tenders for a host of projects. Sadly, the process could not move forward over the delay by the Margao civic body in obtaining the government’s administrative sanctions.
MMC, GWMC have task cut out how to cart away RDF, inert
MARGAO
Work on the remediation of the decades-old Sonsodo legacy dump seemed to have come to an end, but the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) and the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) have a task cut out how to cart away the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) and the inert from the waste dumping site.
Take note, the GWMC-appointed contractor has time till December 2024 to clear the RDF from the Sonsodo site. But, the slow pace of disposal of RDF and inert from Sonsodo has thrown up questions about when this waste generated during the remediation process would be finally cleared from the waste dumping site.
Mounds of RDF and inert are presently lying at the Sosnodo waste dumping site, even though heavy-duty trucks are engaged in the transportation of the RDF to the cement factories in neighbouring Karnataka.
The GWMC has started the annual ritual of covering the RDF mound with tarpaulin sheets as the per undertaking given to the High Court at the last date of hearing of the PIL petition filed by the Citizens for Sonsodo.
What's HPCC headed by CM all about?
MARGAO
What’s this High Powered Coordination Committee (HPCC) headed by the Chief Minister on Sonsodo all about, is a question politicos, officials and citizens alike ask as Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has called the HPCC meet on Monday morning.
Well, a plain reading of the notice of the meeting issued by HPCC Member Secretary Srinet Kothwale shows that the HPCC was constituted for the setting up of Solid Waste Management facilities at Sonsodo on a Design, Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (DBOOT) basis the waste treatment site.
Take note, the HPCC was set up when Margao MLA Digambar Kamat was the chief minister during the Congress regime to facilitate the setting up of the Sonsodo waste treatment plant by Fomento Green in 2012.
The HPCC has since been presided over by as many as four Chief Ministers, starting with Digambar Kamat, the late Manohar Parrikar (two times), Laxmikant Parsekar and Pramod Sawant, twice.
Sadly, there is still no solution to the imbroglio even as the waste management treatment plant set up by Fomento Green has since been handed over to the Margao Municipal Council around three years ago.
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Will mini-waste dump near Margao bus stand come under scanner?
MARGAO
Will Margao Municipal’s mini-waste dump near the KTC bus stand, which is a scene of recurring fires and air pollution, come under the scanner of the Chief Minister-headed High Powered Coordination Committee?
For, while the Sonsodo waste management site has come under the High Court lens, with the court setting a timeframe for the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) to resolve the Sonsodo mess, the mini-waste dump near the KTC bus stand at Fatorda is a site of recurring fires over the last few months.
While the MMC has submitted an Action Plan to the High Court to set up the firefighting mechanism at Sonsodo, it’s another matter that the civic body has missed the deadline, the mini-dump has no firefighting provision to immediately bring the fires under control.
The last time the mini-dump was engulfed by fire during the weekend, it took the MMC an entire day to arrange mud to cap the site, resulting in the wastage of over 60,000 litres of drinking water which was used by the Margao Fire brigade to bring the fire under control.
