MARGAO
What’s this Black Hole machine all about? Or, for that matter the Plasma Heat Technology, which is sought to be introduced at Sonsodo to rid the 60,000 cubic meters of existing waste dump yard?
These and other questions may have come to the fore as the American patented Black Hole machine is the latest technology sought to be introduced at Sonsodo. Since 1998 till 2018 -- over the span of two decades -- the Margao municipality and the government might have roped in at least half a dozen players and technologies to addressing the burning waste problem, but in vain.
In fact, from Komex India Ltd to the latest Black Hole US-patented machine, Sonsodo has indeed come a long way, but a solution to the waste issue appears nowhere in sight.
The quest for a solution to the Sonsodo waste problem had begun around 1998 when the MMC inked an agreement with Komex to resolve the waste imbroglio with Norwegian technology, but the Pune-based company capped its operations within two years.
After a brief period, when the Margao municipality took over the responsibility of handling the dump, the site was later handed over to Claude Alvares and his Goa Foundation team to manage the affairs, before the government of the day brought in Hyquip Projects Ltd, which quit Sonsodo after a two-year stint.
In 2011, the MMC entered into a concession agreement with Fomento-IL&FS, with the twin objective of handling the day-to-day waste by a treatment plant and to sort out the existing waste dump yard. Sorting of the existing waste soon hit a block after the civic body failed to cart away the rejects. As plans to cap the dump yard on the lines of Gorai-Mumbai because of the presence of heavy metals in the waste failed to fructify, the coalition government roped in the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) to carry out bio-remediation of the dump.
A year later, GSIDC is out of Sonsodo after spending around Rs nine crore on the bio-remediation and the government is now toying with the idea of setting up the Black Hole machine at Sonsodo to tackle the waste.
Commenting on TCP Minister Vijai Sardesdai’s plan to introduce the Plasma Heat Technology to resolve Sonsodo waste issue, singer-composer Sidhanath Buyao, who resides in the immediate neighbourhood of the dump yard, has requested Sardesai to arrange for a presentation on the plasma technology before setting up of the Black Hole machine.
“Though as per the TCP Minister, the project has been cleared by GSPCB, there are apprehensions among the public as there may be gaseous emissions in this process which may be very
dangerous to the nearby residents. Such processes are okay for industrial estates far away from residential areas,” he said.
Buyao further pointed out that in April 2017, the minister had hurriedly installed some machines and promised to clear the dump by May 17 which till date have not happened.
Stating that plasma technology have failed earlier in GMC set up for bio-medical waste and that there was no CPCB nod for it, Buyao has assured the minister of full support if convinced with the latest technology despite being his political opponent.
