MARGAO
From Sonsodo to Saligao, Margao Municipal Council’s waste management system seemed to have come a long way.
With the civic body grappling with the Sonsodo imbroglio, it has been left with no option but to send its garbage with love to the Saligao waste treatment plant.
Two garbage compactors, each having the capacity to transport 5-6 tonnes, have been shortlisted to ferry the waste every day to reduce the load at Sonsodo, which presently has no mechanism worth its name to treat the daily waste. Though the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) had given the nod to the MMC to transport 10 tonnes of wet waste to Saligao long ago, the civic body has finally decided to avail the Saligao facility with the situation at Sonsodo turning unmanageable.
Given that the waste needs to be transported by road, crossing several villages and towns along the way, the Margao municipality is preparing a full-proof mechanism wherein the garbage trucks do not emit four odour nor leave leachate along the way.
Given that the leachate drops from compactors during normal operations, sources said MMC has decided to load the wet waste during the evenings to ensure the leachate drains out during the night so that the trucks leave Sonsodo for Saligao in the morning.
This is perhaps the first time in the garbage management history of MMC that the city’s waste will be transported outside the municipal jurisdiction for disposal.
“The civic body has been left with no option but to transport the wet waste to the Saligao. We have no mechanism at Sonsodo to treat wet waste. Moreover, the civic body through the GWMC is in the process of roping in a contractor to treat the daily wet waste at Sosnodo, but there’s no space left inside the shed to handle fresh waste,” informed a senior officer.
MMC officials said that their task would have been made much easy if the government had granted permission to transport wet waste to the Cacora plant.
GWMC, sources said, have sounded a caution saying the Cacora plant is primarily set up to handle the waste generated in the talukas of Quepem, Canacona, Sanguem and Dharbandora, warning that a wrong message may go to people if Margao waste is sent there.
