MARGAO
Leachate and the damaged road leading to the Sonsodo waste management shed have come back to haunt the Margao Municipal Council body.
If the leachate flow from the waste treatment plant had inundated the approach road to the Sonsodo shed, leaving the road unmotorable last month, the ground reality hasn’t changed for the better till date.
In fact, garbage truck drivers now fear for their lives as the approach road has been completely washed away and filled with leachate. A truck driver and the staff are believed to have had a miraculous escape after the garbage truck was stuck up in the mulch. While the driver negotiated the huge craters and managed to drive down from the site, the situation has only raised questions over the delay by the civic body in taking up the bare minimum work of repairing the road to make it motorable in the interests of the civic workers.
After the incident was intimated by the garbage workers, Margao Sanitation Committee Chairperson Camilo Barretto descended on Sonsodo on Saturday to take stock of the situation, only to find the worsening state of affairs.
Camilo has found to his utter shock and surprise that the ground reality has not changed for the better since his last inspection of the Sonsodo site.
In fact, a visibly upset chairperson of the MMC Sanitation committee conceded that that the garbage drivers and workers are facing grave danger to their life as there’s every possibility of the trucks turning turtle on the approach road. “We have to look after the safety of the Municipal truck drivers and the workers. The entire approach road to Sonsodo has turned slippery due to the leachate flow”, he said.
Saying that he had asked the Margao Municipal engineers to put in place a makeshift road at Sonsodo to pave way for the garbage trucks to enter the waste management shed, Camilo lamented that the situation has not changed for the better till date. “The truck driver are facing danger to their lives. I will brief the Civic Chief Damu Shirodkar on the situation at Sonsodo,” he said, adding that responsibility of taking care of the Municipal workers, including the drivers rests on the civic body.
Saying he has pacified the drivers and the workers not to take any hasty action at Sonsodo, Camilo, however, has urged the Municipal engineers to repair the road by soling the entire stretch to facilitate garbage trucks to enter the waste treatment plant.
“The Municipal workers had threatened to take action through the Union, but I have assured them to take up the matter with the Municipal Chairperson to work out an immediate solution”, he added.
Margao Municipal garbage truck drivers and workers pointed out that the Municipal Babus and the City fathers should take urgent steps to repair the road in the interest of their safety. “We find it difficult to drive on the badly damaged road. The approach road has been awaiting repairs since the last two years. However, the condition has deteriorated now that it is not possible to drive on the road”, informed a Municipality driver.
