Keep it separate

It should ideally have been the job of the government, but with no department taking the initiative, it was left to the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) to convince the Calangute panchayat to collect wet garbage from hotels and residents at night and dry garbage during the day. Now the association will move to Arpora to implement the same agenda. It is disheartening to learn that even though the State has been facing a severe garbage problem for the last ten years, panchayats still have to be prodded to enforce segregation of waste at source. Although segregation takes discipline and effort, there is no alternative to it. Segregation is a time-tested method and if done properly makes composting easier, reduces the volume of garbage and improves the quality of manure that is generated. Today, if the treatment plant at Saligao-Calangute is not running to its full potential it is because it receives unsegregated garbage. The initiative taken by the TTAG needs to be praised, but if this approach is to be amplified, then the tourism and panchayat departments will have to work alongside panchayats with the TTAG acting as a facilitator. Having built a state-of-the-art plant, the government now needs to concentrate on garbage segregation and collection.