MARGAO
Commissioning of the100-tonne Cacora waste management plant by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Viksit Bharat Viksit Goa rally has marked the formal inauguration of the Rs 173 crore ambitious project set up by the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC).
The 100-tonne plant may ring in good news for the four hinterland talukas of Canacona, Quepem, Dharbandora and Sanguem on waste management. For the Margao Municipal Council, however, the commissioning of the Cacora plant may call for serious introspection and decision making how the civic body plans to dispose of the waste generated in the commercial capital in the long run.
For, the MMC is presently disposing of its 30-tonne wet waste generated in the city at the Cacora waste management plant as per the orders of the High Court. None other than the Margao City Fathers and Municipal Babus know for sure that the High Court’s arrangement is purely temporary in nature, a stop gap arrangement to facilitate the civic body to set up its waste disposal mechanism in the city.
In fact, Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) Managing Director Levinson Martins was categorical in saying that the MMC cannot send its daily waste to the Cacora plant for long, adding that the civic body should put in place a waste disposal mechanism in the city at the earliest before the Cacora plant shuts its door to Margao waste in the near future.
“Margao waste is accepted by the Cacora plant as per the High Court directions and secondly the capacity of the plant is not utilized to its optimum. But, Margao Municipality should realize that its waste will not accepted at Cacora once garbage starts coming from the four talukas on a daily basis. This is the interim period, the MMC should work out a long term solution how to handle waste in Margao”, Martins asserted.
Options, solutions before
Margao civic body
Staring at the Margao Municipal Council are three crucial questions on the waste management. One, will the Margao Municipal Council set up its own 15TPD waste treatment plant at Sonsodo or go for a gasification plant based on a technology approved by the Goa Energy Development Agency. And, how the civic body intends to go about the lone Bio-methanation plant when the civic body is presently sending the entire waste generated in the commercial capital to the Cacora waste treatment plant.
15TPD bio-digester for Margao
It’s now months since the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) had proposed a Rs 17-crore 15TPD bio-digester for Margao to treat the wet waste generated in the city, currently pegged around 30 tonnes a day. As on today, the MMC has not taken any decision on the GWMC proposal even as the civic is sending its daily waste to the Cacora waste treatment plant for treatment at a transportation pegged lakhs of rupees. Why the Municipal administration has preferred not to place the GWMC proposal before the Council meeting for discussion and deliberations remains unclear.
GWMC officials in private say it is purely for the MMC to take a call on the mater, with a senior official saying the proposed plant and the estimates have been prepared by the agency as per the High Court observations in the PIL on Sonsodo.
10-tonne gasification plant
With the Goa Energy Development Agency (GEDA) zeroing in on the gasification technology to handle waste in the state as a pilot project, questions are raised whether the MMC will go in for the new technology to treat waste generated in the commercial capital.
The Goan understands that GEDA is bracing up to float a tender inviting bids from prospective companies to run the gasification plant in the state. GEDA Director Sanjeev Joglekar informed that once the tender is floated and the bidders shortlisted, the Margao Municipal Council will be asked whether the Civic body is interested in going in for the gasification technology. “GEDA will only play the role of certifying the gasification technology. If the Margao Municipal Council shows interest in the pilot project, the civic body can set up the project estimated to cost, approximately around Rs seven crore”, Joglekar said.
Margao Municipal Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar said the MMC will have to decide and chose between the Rs 17 crore 15TPD plant or the Rs seven crore 10TPD gasification plant. “We plan to forward both the proposals to the government once we received GEDA proposal on the gasification plant”, he added.
5TPD bio-methanation plant
More than two years after the 5TPD bio-methanation plant was commissioned with much fanfare in November 2021, the Plant has finally received the consent to operate from the Goa State Pollution Control board. The MMC, however, finds itself in a tight spot, whether to treat the 5TPD of waste at the bio-methanation when the civic body is presently sending the entire quantum of waste, around 30TPD, to the Cacora plant for disposal.
MMC officials in private say the civic body would not like to divert 5TPD of daily waste to the bio-methantion plant when the city waste is transported to Cacora. Officials, however, say the bio-methanation plant will be kept “in readiness” at all times, as a backup facility in the event the existing arrangements of sending the waste to Cacora go haywire.
The MMC, however, will have to seek legal opinion how to settle the contractor running the bio-methanation plant, when the MMC is required to pay a monthly amount of Rs 1.5 lakh to the contractor for running the plant. “We will seek legal opinion in order to avoid any legal or arbitration issue”, remarked an official.
