MARGAO
The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) has finally started the annual ritual of covering the hazardous zinc waste dump at the Cuncolim Industrial estate.
While the hazardous waste has been left behind at the Cuncolim Industrial estate by Ms Sunrise Zinc, the waste dump is being covered by the GSPCB with tax payer’s money every year.
This year, the entire exercise may cost the exchequer around Rs five lakh, around 4.20 lakh for the tarpaulin and Rs 85,000 the cost of covering the dump.
The exercise of covering the dump has come after an uproar by the local residents of Cuncolim that the dump has been exposed to heavy rains, leaving the water bodies and rivulets contaminated by the chemicals flowing from the waste dump.
Incidentally, GSPCB Member Secretary Sanjeev Joglekar clarified that the Board had already issued the work order to the contractor, but the work could not commence in view of the heavy pre-monsoon showers.
The GSPCB had been performing the annual ritual of covering the hazardous zinc waste over the last decade and half upon directions from the High Court to prevent chemicals from flowing into the water bodies and percolating into the ground water.
Sadly, while the GSPCB had been spending lakhs of rupees to cover the hazardous waste dump, estimated around 35,000 tons, the government is dilly dallying on the question of transporting the waste to the hazardous land fill site at Pissurlem.
