35,000 tonnes dump to be shifted to Pissurlem
The hazardous zinc waste behind the Cuncolim Industrial Estate.
MARGAO
It’s official. The process of carting away the hazardous zinc waste left behind at the Cuncolim Industrial Estate over a decade and half ago, will finally commence on Saturday.
This is perhaps the first time that the Goa Waste Management Corporation will undertake the unprecedented exercise of transporting hazardous waste, estimated around 35,000 tonnes from an industrial estate to the hazardous landfill site at Pissurlem.
Initial estimates show that it may cost the exchequer staggering Rs 13-14 crore.
GWMC officials, sources said, have mobilised men and machinery to transport the hazardous waste from Cuncolim to Pissurlem from Saturday. Sources, however, said that GWMC is expected to carry out the exercise for the next 20-25 days depending on the weather conditions before the site is covered with tarpaulin sheets.
Leader of Opposition, Yuri Alemao, who represents Cuncolim constituency, said that the unprecedented exercise of transporting the hazardous waste will take off from Saturday. “People of Cuncolim have been waiting for the day when the government will shift the hazardous waste from Cuncolim to Pissurlem. The day has finally arrived now after I repeatedly took up the matter with the government since my election in 2022,” Yuri said.
He said the GWMC has prepared a chart on the transportation of the hazardous waste from the Cuncolim IDC to Pissurlem, adding that he would closely monitor the exercise to ensure that the Cuncolim IDC is rid of the decade-and-half-year-old hazardous waste.
