MARGAO
This may appear strange and expose the Margao Municipal Council for its abject failure to treat waste generated in the commercial capital over the last three years.
For, once again, the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) has set in motion the process for the remediation of the waste mound inside the Sonsodo waste management shed, but with a strict condition that the Margao Municipality does not dump fresh waste inside the shed.
This is perhaps the third time since 2020 that the GWMC has roped in an agency to cart out the waste mound lying inside the Sonsodo shed for remediation, indicating that no treatment of waste was taking place at the Sonsodo waste management shed over the last three years. The contractor engaged by the GWMC has started carting out the piled up waste inside the Sonsodo shed to the adjoining open space for remediation.
GWMC Managing Director, Levinson Martins has informed that the contractor has been told to remediate the waste lying inside the waste treatment plant within the next four months.
As per the estimates prepared by the GWMC, around 8,930 metric tons of the waste is lying inside the Sonsodo waste management shed.
While the contractor is busy carting out the waste from the shed to the open space, the GWMC Managing Director has dashed off a letter to the Margao Municipal Council to ensure that no fresh waste shall be disposed/ dumped on the estimated quantity of waste lying inside the shed.
“Since the contractor has started the work of carting out the waste lying inside the shed, the MMC Chief Officer has been told not to dump fresh waste inside the waste management shed,” Martins said.
To a question, Martins said the work of remediation of the 8,930 metric tons of waste should be hopefully completed in the next 3-4 months.
This is the third time in the last three years that the GWMC is on the job to remediate the piled up waste inside the Sonsodo shed as depository work.
First time, the GWMC had cleared the waste lying inside the Sonsodo shed was in the year 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, wherein the entire shed was cleared of the waste in order to facilitate the Margao Municipality to start waste treatment.
Sadly, the Sonsodo shed was again full to the brim months later, as a result of which portions of the shed walls collapsed. It was again that time that the GWMC entered inside the shed for remediation of the piled up waste to make space for the daily intake of wet waste.
Presently, the Sonsodo waste management shed is full to the brim and as per the estimates prepared by the GWMC, around 8,930 metric tons of wet waste has accumulated inside, indicating the absence of waste treatment worth its name at Sonsodo.
