PANAJI
Resentment voiced by residents around the Saligao waste plant over garbage from across Goa making its way there and the nuisance it causes including foul smell will be deliberated by the House on Monday.
Issue had been raised last week by Calangute MLA Michael Lobo via a calling attention motion after the State government decided to direct some of the daily-generated garbage from Sonsodo also to the Saligao plant. The discussion on it was postponed and is now listed on Monday’s agenda.
Residents in Pilerne and Saligao, along the road accesses to the plant have been complaining of the nuisance the continuous, foul-smelling transportation of waste by the garbage trucks is causing to their daily lives for some time now.
Lobo had raised the issue in the House a week ago and objected to garbage from more areas of the State being directed there for treatment as the plant is already functioning beyond its capacity.
The Calangute MLA, who was the Minister for Solid Waste Management in the previous term and was involved in the functioning of the plant, has instead suggested that the government move quickly on the proposal to set up a new plant at Sonsodo itself.
The Saligao plant was built mainly to handle solid waste generated in the tourism-sensitive coastal belt of North Goa and some panchayats in the region around its location.
Meanwhile, the Goa Solid Waste Management Corporation has proposed a new plan for waste management which focuses on handling the task in four geographical clusters -- Saligao with Bicholim as a sub-cluster for the North, Bainguinim for central Goa and two clusters for the South at Cacora and Verna.
Of these four clusters only Saligao and Cacora have major functional plants and there is no clarity on the timelines for executing the proposed plants at Verna and Bainguinim.
Revenue Minister, Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate, who holds the solid waste management portfolio, is likely to be pressured to outline the timeframes for executing the Bainguinim and Verna plants, when he replies to Lobo’s motion on Monday.
The State is estimated to be generating around 750 tonnes of waste every day but has treatment plants with capacity to deal with just about half of these volumes.
