MARGAO
Will the Margao city fathers seek a status report on the fate of the roadmap and the slew of measures proposed by the council to address Sonsodo and the vexed solid waste management at its July 9 meeting held in 2021?
The July 9 meeting was the new council’s first meeting after the civic polls and the city fathers had all mooted a slew of proposals to address the vexed solid waste management imbroglio staring at the commercial capital.
Sadly, it’s now around 10 months since the July 9 meeting had rolled out the road map to address the issue, but none of the measures has taken shape at Sonsodo to date.
The MMC had resolved to set up two 25TPD bio-methanation plants at Sonsodo, but the ground reality has not changed for the better. This is evident by the fact that 10 months later the MMC has now handed over the task of putting the two plants to the Goa Waste Management Corporation.
The council had resolved to re-tender the door-to-door waste collection within three months. It’s now 10-months and the tendering process to rope in contractors is still underway, with the existing contractor continuing the work via extensions.
It was also resolved on July 9 to appoint a contractor by floating Expression of Interest (EOI) to handle the daily waste at the Sonsodo plant. Leave alone the contractor, the MMC could not treat the daily waste, leaving the waste treatment plant to a point of saturation with 14,000 tonnes of piled-up waste.
The MMC had further resolved to cart out the piled-up waste. After 10 months, the GWMC will now carry out the task.
Relief for civic body on dry waste front
MARGAO: Hazard a guess how will the Margao Municipal Council treat the daily dry waste generated in the commercial capital with the March fire incident restricting baling operations at Sonsodo?
Well, the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) has decided to accept with love Margao’s dry waste, with the agency giving its authorization to the civic body to transport 10-tonnes of dry waste to the Saligao plant.
The exercise has only exposed the Margao civic body over its failure to put a mechanism in place to treat the city’s dry waste after the March fire incident. For, out of the eight baling machines required to run on a daily basis to clear the dry waste, only three are in operation.
GWMC Managing Director, Levinson Martins, told The Goan that the Corporation has decided to accept the MMC dry waste on a host of conditions, warning that any non-compliance will result in the cancellation of the service without any notice.
“Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the waste bags should be disinfected as per MOHFW guidelines. The MMC should get the authorization from Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) or any other authority if required to be obtained as per law/rules”, Martins said, adding that the GWMC has granted the permission to the MMC as a temporary measure.
He said the MMC is required to set up baling operation and dry waste management facilities at the earliest and not to depend on this ad hoc measure, adding the GWMC reserves the right to withdraw its permission if waste received is non-segregated dry waste and the plant may not accept such waste due to issues of treatment capacity.
