the goan I networkrMARGAOr r This question has come to the fore with the Margao Municipality reviewing the infrastructure requirement on the garbage collection and transportation front, with preliminary information unraveling the bitter truth that there’s a huge mismatch between the existing infrastructure in terms of men, machinery and materials. Officials in the know reveal that the capital city is better equipped both in term of men and machines than the commercial capital. rQuestions are being raised in the corridors of the civic body whether a fleet of just 11 vehicles, with just four compactors, can do justice for the transportation of 60 tonnes of garbage generated in the city every day. rIn the absence of adequate number of compactors, lifting of waste is carried out manually by the municipal workers, thus taking a huge toll on their health and efficiency. rRough estimates worked out by the civic indicate that Margao municipality ought to have a minimum of 20 vehicles in its fleet, including 11 garbage compactors, to meet today’s requirements. “The city is divided into 11 garbage sectors and prudence demands that each sector is served by at least one garbage compactor. We require another 9-10 trucks for lifting of vegetable, green waste and debris,” sources said. r That’s not all. Take the case of garbage collection for instance. The civic body presently employs an army of 120 daily wage workers for the door-to-door collection of garbage. Of these, around 96 workers report for duties every day, collecting the waste from the household and disposing the same in the municipal bins. r Municipal officials in the know, however, point out that these daily wage workers only carry out the minimum function of collecting waste door-to-door, leaving waste segregation unattended. This despite the fact that the municipality had distributed free bins for the households for segregation of dry and wet waste. r “Segregation of waste has failed to catch up in the city. No doubt, around 96-120 daily wage workers are engaged by the civic body for the collection of waste door-to-door. But, what we require is further segregation of the waste handed over by the households. This is not happening for the moment,” an official said. r It was pointed out that the civic body should set up small segregation stations or units in each ward for segregation of the waste collected from the households, to take waste segregation to its logical conclusion. r Says chairman of Margao Municipal Sanitation committee, Tito Cardozo: “At a meeting of the panel, which was attended by the chairperson Babita Angle Prabhudesai, the municipality has called upon the sanitation cell to compile a report on the available infrastructure and the requirements of the city”. r Cardozo pointed out that since the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has set up the Solid Waste Management Corporation, the civic body will submit a detailed list of requirements, right from garbage compactors, to trucks and segregation stations. r What’s interesting to note is the fact that the last time the Margao civic body procured garbage compactors was way back in 2010 when Digambar Kamat was the Chief Minister. The Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) had in the past promised to buy two compactors for the civic body, but in vain, resulting in a serious mismatch between the available infrastructure and the growing requirements.
Margao’s garbage infra system in major need of overhaul
Has Margao Municipal Council’s garbage collection and transportation infrastructure failed to meet the growing requirements over the years, with the city’s population almost touching the one lakh mark and the growing number of households with each passing year?
