Sonsodo in Salcete, Sada in Mormugao and now Saligao in Bardez. If the experience of the waste management plants set up there in the past is anything to go by, it is no surprise that many are pessimistic over the proposal for a plant to manage 250 tonnes-per-day of waste at Bainguinim, some ten kilometres from the capital Panaji.
The proposed plant is being designed to operate for 320 days in a year, leaving approximately six weeks as its shutdown period for the plant and machinery maintenance work. According to the project report which got environment clearance (EC) last week after the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority scrutinised the EIA report prepared by Pune-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), the plant will operate in two shifts and will be maximum automated to reduce the burden of labour requirements.
NEERI claimed in its EIA report that the construction of the plant will have no impact on the project area as it is already in use for dumping soil and waste. Also, there is no vegetation there, and impact if any, will only be on the road infrastructure in the surrounding area during the plant’s construction phase. The impact on the roads could however be offset by putting in place a proper traffic management plan so that congestion on the highway and local road network is avoided, the EIA report states.
Although technological details of the proposed plant have not been finalised, it is expected to be a clone of the one built and which is currently in operation at Saligao.
Expected to cost around Rs 250 crores, the built up edifices of the plant will stand on approximately 22,000-odd square metres of the available 1.71-lakh square metres of land at the Bainguinim site.
Thirteen years ago, it was originally proposed to be a 100 tonnes-per-day plant exclusively for the capital city’s Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP). But stiff opposition from locals, the Church due to its proximity to the world heritage sites at Old Goa, civil society and local panchayat, the plan was shelved and instead expanded to a 250 tonnes-per-day capacity plant which will cater to not only Panaji, but the whole of Tiswadi and also some villages of Sattari, Bicholim and Ponda talukas.
And, like in the case of the Saligao plant, the Solid Waste Management Corporation (SWMC) will be the nodal agency which will oversee the execution of the project by the concessionaire that wins the tender when it is floated.
Meanwhile, the EC for the project puts down several conditions including the maximum quantities and the various types of solid waste which the plant will be allowed to handle.
For instance, the plant will be permitted to take in a maximum of 50 tonnes of dry waste, 150 tonnes of segregated wet waste and another 50 tonnes of mixed waste on a daily basis.
The plant will have to comply with The Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 prescribed by Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
The EC also mandates that the daily output from the plant like recyclables have to be recovered and routed through recycling vendors, the refused derived fuel (RDF) has to be disposed safely at the closest cement plants for co-processing in cement kilns at a temperature greater than 1100 degrees centigrade with no residues.
The plant, like the Saligao plant will have a provision for generating electricity from a bio-methanation plant which will make the plant energy neutral and any surplus integrated into the local power grid.
Church has always voiced concerns on project near sites in Old Goa: Fr Vaz
MELVYN MISQUITA
With a number of world heritage church sites in Old Goa, the Church has always been voicing strong concerns over the proposed garbage treatment plant at Bainguinim ever since it was proposed at the site.
Siridao Parish Priest Fr Valerian Vaz, who was among the church leaders involved in creating awareness on the issue as the then director of Caritas Goa, said the church had stressed very strongly that the proposed site is only abut 1.2 km from the heritage church sites.
“At that time, when hearings were going on, neither the Old Goa panchayat nor church authorities and or anyone else were taken into account because authorities had said as per the land acquisition act, only those “interested parties”, that is, only people directly involved in the land to be acquired, should be heard. The others, be it the church or panchayat or even the civil society, were not be considered.”
“However, we sought to convey that the impact of the project would affect the surrounding areas as well,” recalled Fr Vaz.
Expressing apprehensions over the practical execution of the project, Fr Vaz said: “The State government claims it would treat certain kinds of garbage, but the reality is that all kinds of garbage gets dumped at such sites. This is what is already happening at the Saligao waste treatment plant. We need a well-organised system and a good and strong monitoring agency to see that the waste is properly managed from the source till the last disposal but the administration has faltered in this regard till the present times. The various sites like Sonsodo (Margao), Sada (Vasco), Patto (Panaji), Saligao, etc are all examples of mismanagement, resulting into dumps rather than treatment plants.”
“One thing for certain is that the entire world heritage area will be affected and the people visiting these heritage church sites will be affected by the stench if the Bainguinim project is mismanaged.”
Citing an example to prove that an entire area could get affected by an activity at one site, Fr Vaz recalled that people would earlier dry fish in the same area of the proposed project, attracting a huge number of bluebottle flies all over the place.
“For nearly two years, these bluebottle flies were all over Old Goa and we struggled to even eat our food at the Centre for the Handicapped, which is about 1 km from the site. If the Bainguinim project is set up, the south-westerly winds would directly blow the stench towards the heritages churches at Old Goa.”
Claiming that under the forest act, dumps are not permitted within close vicinity of areas of religious importance, Fr Vaz said these concerns had been highlighted in the church’s representation to authorities.
Besides carefully studying the matter and submitting representations to authorities, Fr Vaz said the church had also been active in creating public awareness on the issue.
“At the time, the church was involved in huge rallies, which represented people of different faiths and from all walks of life, to create awareness on this project and its adverse consequences.”
“The church cannot and will not remain silent on this issue and will continue to voice its concerns on the proposed garbage plant at Bainguinim,” affirmed Fr Vaz.
Opposition lacks leadership
MANUEL VAZ
It was the year 2003 when the agitation against the site at Bainguinim for setting up waste plant initially started. Even though the site was not acquired then, people and leaders cutting across political lines joined hands in their opposition to the project.
Later in 2009, the agitation grew even bigger as the site got acquired and the government tried to set up the plant at the site. Thousands of people hit the streets which forced the government to go slow on the project. Today, with the Environment Clearance (EC) granted to the project the opposition to the waste plant continues but it remains to be seen whether the same level of intensity will be achieved by the agitators as it appears that currently there is lack of leadership in leading the agitation.
Speaking to The Goan, former Old Goa sarpanch Nilkanth Bhomkar recalled that somewhere in 2003 they came to know that the government was planning to acquire the site at Bainguinim to dump waste there. “Waste from municipality was sought to be dumped there,” he informed.
“Immediately, a big agitation took place in which late Mathanhy Saldanha, late Victoria Fernandes, Nirmala Sawant and MLA Pandurang Madkaikar participated. Thousands of locals gathered from Divar, Corlim, Carambolim, St Estevam, Curca and other villages voicing their opposition to the project forcing the government to retract its steps,” Bhomkar informed.
“Old Goa is a heritage site and every year, the Novena and Feast of St Francis Xavier takes place with thousands of people thronging the place for 10 days. And then every 10 years, the Exposition takes place for 45 days. Hence, Old Goa is not a suitable site to set up a garbage treatment plant,” he stated.
“If the government wanted to set up a garbage plant at Bainguinim, they should have reserved a buffer zone around the site and not allowed buildings to come up. So, government authorities are also at fault for having approved the construction of the buildings in close vicinity of the plant site,” he pointed out.
“We need garbage plant in Goa but it has to be set up in each panchayat. There is also a SC judgement stating that municipalities and panchayats should treat waste in their own jurisdiction.”
“Garbage from all over will be treated in Old Goa and the other panchayats will enjoy at our cost. We will be the ones who will bear the consequences of the garbage plant. That cannot be allowed to happen,” he added.
Admitting that there is lack of leadership at present, Bhomkar said some people thought that they won the fight.
“But they did not realize that the process would still go on. There is a need to fight the issue united. The locals should have been taken along. As of now, it looks like only the flat owners are fighting when the reality is that even the locals are opposing,” said Bhomkar, adding that he is ready to lend support to the agitation but he has not been approached by the current lot of leaders who are leading the agitation.
Vishwas Kuttikar, who was a panch in 2003, also agreed that currently there is lack of leadership when it comes to leading the agitation against the project.
“If the local MLA was well, the plant would have never come up as he was an effective leader with mass appeal,” Kuttikar stated.
Social worker Samil Volvoikar who participated in the agitation in 2009 informed that the agitation that occurred then was very aggressive with local MLA Pandurang Madkaikar and St Cruz MLA Victoria Fernandes leading the protesters.
“Many meetings were held in and around Old Goa and then a massive public meeting was held in Panaji. Many people were taken to the police headquarters and then released,” Volvoikar stated.
“After that, the process of the plant was put on the backburner and now, it has resurfaced with people again opposing the same. But that time, the level of agitation was quite different,” he stated.
“That time, the MLAs of the three constituencies, Cumbarjua, St Cruz and St Andre, were together in their fight against the project,” Volvoikar informed while stating that weightage to the opposition was more then than now.
“Generally, the people are opposing but there has to be a leader who will bring the people to hit the streets. One just cannot say that they are opposing the plant and sit at home,” he opined.
