the goan I network
MARGAO
Around 17,000 apartments and flats in 650 housing societies; 5,000 single dwellings and around 15,000 business establishments “ that’s the number of households and establishments that have come under the scanner of the Margao Municipal Council as the civic body is gearing up for a battle on waste segregation at source.
On the logistics front, the civic body has knocked the doors of the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) for two additional garbage compactors, three open trucks and as many rickshaws to tone up the waste transportation component. Besides, the civic body has requisitioned around 40,000 bins for distribution to all the households, including business establishments.
To begin with, the Municipality has set its sights on the 650 housing societies which plays host to the 17,000 apartments and flats to take the battle on waste segregation at source to its logical conclusion. Though the civic body’s survey shows that around 15 tons of unsegregated waste comes into the city from the neighbouring villages at the dark spots identified at a number of places, Municipal officials say that an effective waste segregation at source management at the level of housing societies, which alone account for 17,000 households, will go a long way in addressing the issue of segregation of waste at source. MMC’s in-charge of solid waste management, engineer, Agostinho Mesquita said the civic body has decided to concentrate on the housing societies, apartments and flats to resolve the waste problem. “More than half the battle against waste problem can be won if we are able to manage the waste coming from the housing societies. In this respect, we have decided to put our focus on the housing societies and ensure that people hand over the waste in segregated form,” he said.
Mesquita, however, said that it will take some time to change the ground reality. “Right now, households hand over waste in unsegregated form to the civic workers collecting waste door to door. Our target is to target these households, the housing societies first and ensure they hand over segregated waste,” he said, adding ‘our work of collecting segregated waste in the seven municipal wards have started giving results. We can see a perceptible change in the waste coming to the treatment plant’.
In this connection, the Municipal engineer pointed out that the Municipality will hand over a bucket to each of the households across the city. Unlike last time round, the Municipality will hand over a bag for the collection of dry waste, which will be collected twice or thrice a week.
As far as the dark spots are concerned, which normally receives waste from across the city borders, the civic body intends to tackle the situation by deploying two additional garbage compactors. “We have identified the dark spots, where people dispose of the waste. While the civic body will resort to imposing fines to the violators, two additional garbage compactors are proposed to be deployed in the city on the major routes for collection of the unsegregated waste,” he added.
On the manpower front, the civic body has plans to rope in additional 20 workers to streamline the process, including deploying the workers for the bailing work at Sonsodo.
