MARGAO
Can Waste Management Minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate bring about a turnaround at Sonsodo amid the ills plaguing solid waste management in the commercial capital?
This question is doing the rounds in the corridors of the Margao Municipal Council as Babush Monserrate is likely to descend at Sonsodo later this week, tentatively on April 21, his first visit to the garbage dumping site after taking over the office as the State’s Waste Management Minister.
Indeed, the Margao civic body looks forward to Monserrate’s visit to Sonsodo as a host of burning issues have come to stare at the stakeholders. The Margao Municipality is seeking the urgent intervention of the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) to bail itself out of the Sonsodo situation, with the garbage treatment plant reaching the state of saturation and no treatment of waste worth its name taking place at Sonsodo over the last several months.
Sonsodo legacy dump
The Waste Management Minister will have to do a review of the progress of work concerning the remediation of the Sonsodo legacy dump. Given the slow pace of work, the High Court in a petition filed by the Citizens for Sonsodo had at the last date of hearing sought an explanation from the legacy dump remediation contractor over the ongoing work underway at the site.
Carting out piled waste
While the GWMC has in principle agreed to get the contractor to cart out the piled up waste from the shed and remediate the same, the Minister’s visit is expected to resolve the issues, including the issues relating to codal formalities and the time frame to empty the shed, which according to rough estimates prepared by the civic body, plays host to around 10,000 tonnes of piled up waste.
Handling daily wet waste
While the project to cart out the piled waste and remediate the same should not be a big issue given that the GWMC had got the shed cleared of waste at a cost of around Rs 85 lakh, the MMC, as well as the government will have a task cut out “ how to go about the handling of the 35 tonnes wet waste generated in the city?
Bio-methanation plants
Margao Municipal Council's ambitious plans to set up the two 25TPD bio-methanation plants at Sonsodo to address the waste management issue have failed to take off as the government-constituted panel is yet to give the technology approval for the project.
Dumping at Cacora plant
One option that is being debated in the Municipal circles is a proposal to transport at least 10 tonnes of the wet waste from the city to the Cacora waste treatment plant which is due for commissioning.
Politicians descending at Sonsodo is not new
Politicians descending at Sonsodo, right from Chief Ministers to Ministers and Babus, is not something new for Madgavkars, Fatordekars and the residents of Curtorim bordering Sonsodo.
If Margao MLA Digambar Kamat paid a visit to Sonsodo after assuming office as the Chief Minister in 2007 in shorts, his successor Manohar Parrikar too paid a visit to the site, not once but on several occasions, including a secret visit to Sonsodo before the government decided to remediate the Sonsodo legacy dump after rejecting the capping proposal. Remediation of the Sonsodo legacy dump had kick-started during his tenure.
Parrikar’s successor and incumbent Chief Minister Pramod Sawant too had visited Sonsodo when the site was engulfed by fire, offering help and government assistance to bring the fire under control.
Babush Monserrate’s predecessor Michael Lobo had also paid a visit to Sonsodo at least on two occasions to take stock of the situation during his stint in office
Local, outstation contractors make
beeline to bid for waste collection
MARGAO
Local as well as outstation contractors made a beeline at the Margao Municipal Council with an eye on the Rs 2.40 crore door-to-door waste collection project, the tender for which was floated by the civic body recently.
Three companies from Pune, Kolhapur and Bangalore along with two incumbent contractors, Bapu Social Engineering and Green Globe, besides three other contractors, have all placed their bids to bag the prized contract.
At a pre-bid meeting held at the Municipality on Monday, the civic body has insisted the companies submit a bank guarantee amounting to Rs one crore. Though some of the bidders have raised questions about the hefty bank guarantee, sources said the Municipality has stuck to its decision, saying the civic body is keen on engaging only serious contractors to execute the job.
Out of the eight bidders, the MMC will shortlist two companies, one for the Fatorda area of the city, having 11 wards, and the second for Margao city, including the three wards under the Housing Board area of the civic body.
This is perhaps the first time that the Municipality has tendered the door-to-door garbage collection for the entire city and comes against the backdrop of accusations that one of the existing contractors had made a backdoor entry sans the tendering process. The civic body was also accused of giving extensions for the existing contractors when the contractor runs into crores of rupees.
