MARGAO
Margao City Fathers on Wednesday gave its nod to the Municipal administration to utilize 14th Finance Commission funds to cart away and remediate the 15,000 tonnes of piled up waste inside the Sonsodo plant on top most priority apparently to rid the plant shed of the garbage.
Sadly, the special Council meeting chaired by Chairperson Lyndon Pereira showed no urgency in finalizing measures how to go about the treatment of the daily wet garbage generated in the commercial capital.
While the carting out of the 15,000 tonnes of piled up waste at a cost of Rs 2.70 crore was on the priority list of the City Fathers, besides restoration of power supply to Sonsodo by installing a new power transformer and other equipment worth Rs 50 lakh, no discussion took place at the special meeting how to go about waste treatment once the piled up waste is carted out and the shed admeasuring 5,000 square metres is made available for garbage treatment.
The Goa Waste Management Corporation on behalf of the Margao Municipal Council had in mid-2020 had got rid of the piled up waste from the treatment plant at a cost of Rs 84 lakh. Instead of utilizing the shed to treat the daily waste, the MMC just dumped the waste over the last 15 months as a result of which around 15,000 tonnes of waste piled up inside the shed caused the collapse of a portion of the wall last week.
No doubt, City Fathers, including former Chairperson Ganashyam Shirodkar, Sadanand Naik and others took the technical officials to task on the failed solid waste management system. Sadly, the Councilors showed no urgency in demanding from the Chairperson whether there’s any concrete proposal in addressing the solid waste management issues plaguing the city.
Incidentally, a brief note put up by the office for the consideration of the Councilors clearly showed that the MMC technical section had anticipated the collapse of the plant wall just days before it came crashing down.
Meanwhile, in another decision, the special meeting has decided to go in for electrical equipment, including transformer at Sonsodo at a cost of Rs 49.19 lakh to tide over the power situation.
It was further resolved to write to Goa Waste Management Corporation for quotation for supply of 240-litre dustbins (400) and 40-litre dustbins black and green (400), each and same may be forwarded to Directorate of Municipal Administration to obtain Administrative Approval under 15th Finance Commission Fund.
When the media later questioned Chairperson Pereira to unveil his plan of action on the treatment of the daily waste, he fumbled in his reply, only saying the government expert committee has not given the technology nod to set up two 25TPD waste treatment plant. Incidentally, he said the MMC is in receipt of a proposal from one Khan to set up a waste treatment plant, but could not shed much light on the proposal.
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MMC must take up bio-remediation
of waste, says Shadow Council
MARGAO: The Shadow Council for Margao has said it is indeed high time for the Margao Municipal Council to admit the fact that improper services of the waste collection contractors and the lack of proper supervision is the main cause for the situation arisen on Wednesday.
SCM Convenor Savio Coutinho was reacting to media reports stating there exists a proposal for Bio Remediation of the waste accumulated in the Sonsodo plant at an estimated to cost Rs 2.70 crores.
Saying the costs for the Bio Remediation through the GWMC Contractor actually works out extremely high, and this has been witnessed during the earlier exercise in June 2020, the SCM has strongly recommended the MMC takes up this work departmentally by purchasing the bare minimum equipment involving less than 25 lakhs.
“The much hyped "Bio-remediation", all that is done is screening of the waste. And this could well be done by the Council itself, provided there is sincerity and a will to solve this issue. In case the Council is determined to only see the work as a "contract", then nothing much would happen, considering the "other interests" involved in a tender/contract,” Coutinho added.
