Fate of 5TPD bio-methanation plant hangs in balance over GSPCB’s directive to shut Ops

MARGAO
Shoppers to the SGPDA’s mega market complex at Old Market will come across a waste treatment plant standing tall at its entrance decked up with a fresh coat of paint earlier this year.

When it was commissioned in November 2022, it was projected that the 5TPD bio-methanation plant will not only treat wet waste, but will generate power and revenue for the Margao Municipal Council.

The very fate of the 5TPD bio-methanation plant now hangs in balance. The reason is not far too seek.

Commissioned with much fanfare in November 2022, the bio-methanation plant had finally obtained the consent to operate from the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) only on January 29, 2024 after the plant came under the lens of citizens of Fatorda over the contamination of the water bodies.

Four days later, however, on February 2, 2024, the GSPCB sent another letter to the Margao civic body with a direction to discontinue the operation of the 5TPD bio-methanation plant within a period of six months from the date of issue of the consent to operate.

This implies that the six months’ time-frame to discontinue the operations of the 5TPD bio-methanation plants started from January 29, 2024, indicating that the MMC will be required to discontinue operations at the plant by July-end.

It’s another matter that the contractor engaged by the civic body to run the plant has not resumed operations since the plant was refurbished and repaired following complaints of contamination of the water bodies by the discharge of digested slurry.

Margao Municipal Council officials find themselves in a tight spot. For, on one hand, the bio-methanation plant has been refurbished by the contractor to run the unit as per the terms of the contract. That’s not all. The plant has also received for the first time the consent to operate from the GSPCB to run the unit. Even the PWD, which had in the past blocked the MMC from discharging the digested slurry into the sewage treatment plant at Sirvodem, had opened the doors for the slurry to be treated at the STP.

On the other hand, GSPCB directions to the Margao Municipal Council to discontinue the operation of the bio-methanation plant in the SGPDA complex within a period of six months, which expires on July 29, has thrown up questions over the plant’s very future.

Take note, GSPCB’s February 2, 2024 directions to the MMC to discontinue the 5TPD plant within six months had another important directions “ that the MMC should install additional bio-digester plants of sufficient capacity at the Sonsodo waste management facility.

The ground reality has not changed at Sonsodo for the better in the last six months. Leave alone setting up additional bio-digester plants at Sonsodo, the entire wet waste, around 30-odd tons, generated in the city every day is transported to the Cacora waste management plant for treatment upon payment of Rs 14.5 lakh a month.

GSPCB’s consent to operate on January 29, 2024

Consent to operate under the Water Act and Air Act order issued to the Margao Municipal Council on January 29, 2024. The consent to operate will remain in force for a period of six months

The consent, however, does not entitle the party to commence activities until and unless all the other permissions as required under the relevant statutes are obtained by the party

MMC in quandary as consent expires on July 29; hopes pinned on govt for solution

MARGAO: Margao Municipal Council officials find themselves in a quandary how to go about with the 5TPD bio-methanation plant at the SGPDA market.

With the GSPCB’s six-month consent to operate expiring on July 29 and the Pollution Control Board issuing further directions to the civic body to discontinue operations at the plant, civic officials wonder what the civic body is supposed to do with the refurbished plant.

Officials fear that the directions to stop operations of the bio-methanation plant do not land them in a legal battle with the contractor. 

“We do not know what the MMC is supposed to do with the bio-methanation plant after July 29. The GSPCB directions stipulate that the civic body set up additional bio-methanation plants at the Sonsodo waste management shed. We do not know whether the GSPCB wants the MMC to shift the existing plant to Sonsodo. If the answer is in the positive, it would be not possible to shift the plant to Sonsodo,” remarked an official.

He added: “We cannot also just leave the bio-methanation plant at the market which is owned by the SGPDA. Leaving a non-functional plant in a busy area will not augur well for the civic body and the SGPDA.”

Given the situation, civic officials pin their hopes on the government to come out with a solution for the tangle. Whether the government will extend the consent to operate for the plant remains unknown for the moment, more so when the Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira had made a statement in the Legislative Assembly that the GSPCB has issued the consent to operate only for a period of six months.

“Let the government take a call on the matter. The MMC has already communicated to the government to convene a meeting of the Chief Minister-headed High Powered Coordination Committee. The issue of 5TPD bio-methanation plant will also be discussed at the meeting,” the official added.