MARGAO
Is the burning Sonsodo imbroglio finally resolved? None other than Chief Minister Pramod Sawant thundered at the BJP Margao karyakarta melava that Sonsodo is finally resolved.
It is a sheer coincidence that Waste Management Minister Atanasio Monserrate had said some time ago that one will not even come across flies, let alone odour, at Sonsodo.
That’s not all. A year ago, Advocate General Devidas Pangam made a statement before the High Court that most systems are in place at Sonsodo, going to the extent of saying that the Sonsodo dump site no longer qualifies as an unauthorised or mismanaged dump site.
Accepting the AG’s statements and after going through the photographs produced by the Margao Municipal Council showing that the legacy waste has been cleared/remediated, the Court accepted these statements and disposed of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Citizens for Sonsodo through its Secretary Roque Mascarenhas.
So far, so good, one may say. But what’s next at Sonsodo? Is the Margao Municipal Council content in transporting its daily wet and dry waste to the Cacora waste treatment plant for treatment at a whopping cost, running into lakhs, if not crores, of rupees annually?
For how long will the Margao Municipal Council depend on the Cacora waste treatment for the disposal of its daily waste “ 30-odd tonnes of wet waste and around 19-20 tonnes of dry waste? Is it a government policy to transport Margao’s waste to Cacora since the 100-tonne capacity plant has been grossly lying under-utilised for want of sewage from the talukas of Quepem, Sanguem, and Canacona?
Can Sonsodo be resolved sans a waste treatment plant?
This moot question has been repeatedly asked in the corridors of the Margao Municipal Council and outside over the last year, why the civic body is dragging its feet to initiate measures to set up its own waste treatment plant. Consider this: What the Margao Municipal Council is presently doing is collecting the waste door to door from the thousands of households and transporting the same to the waste treatment plant at Cacora. In the bargain, the MMC is spending lakhs of rupees every month to foot the transportation bill alone. Take note, the civic body may have to shell out crores of rupees annually once the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) raises the bill on waste treatment at the Cacora plant.
A year ago, the GWMC had underscored the need for the Margao Municipal Council to have its own waste treatment plant at Sonsodo on the grounds that transportation and treatment of waste at the Cacora plant is a purely temporary measure. In fact, former GWMC Managing Director Levinson Martins was categorical in saying that the MMC should have its own plant to meet any exigencies, in the event the Cacora plant stops functioning.
CM-led panel yet to get cracking
While disposing of the Public Interest Litigation on Sonsodo, the High Court was of the firm view that the government, Goa Waste Management Corporation, and the Margao Municipal Council should work in tandem to set up a bio-methanation plant at Sonsodo.
This had become evident after the Advocate General submitted that the Chief Minister-headed High Powered Coordination Committee (HPCC) would meet and take a decision on the issue of setting up the 15 TPD bio-methanation plant and making the 5 TPD bio-methanation plant at the SGPDA market operational. While disposing of the PIL, the High Court had observed, “We expect the HPCC to address these issues as soon as possible and issue necessary directions to the GWMC and the MMC. The MMC must file a status report/affidavit on this issue by 05.07.2024.”
A year has passed since the High Court passed these directions, but the Chief Minister-headed HPCC meeting has yet to take place. Margao Municipal officials say the civic body had written to the government to convene the HPCC meeting, but in vain.
MMC has spent crores at Sonsodo upon HC directions
Questions are often asked in the corridors of the Margao Municipal Council about the High Court’s intention of issuing a host of directions to the civic body to tone up the infrastructure at Sonsodo.
In fact, the MMC is believed to have spent over Rs three crores to put infrastructure in place at Sonsodo, including installing a fire-fighting system, constructing retaining walls, etc., upon High Court directions.
Sources say the High Court had instructed these works to be completed on the premise that Sonsodo would be put to re-use once the legacy dump was cleared of waste. “It is abundantly clear that the High Court had got the infrastructure in place at Sonsodo so that the MMC could re-use the site for waste management. It is sheer irony that after spending crores of rupees on Sonsodo, the Margao Municipality is transporting the city’s waste to Cacora for treatment,” sources lamented.
