MARGAO
The very mention of coconut water may instantly bring to mind its many health benefits, besides acting as a natural beverage on a scorching summer noon or after a workout.
Encashing the craze amongst health-conscious citizens, it’s not uncommon to find tender coconut vendors mushrooming across the nook and corners of the city and along the roads, displaying a variety of tender coconuts for sale.
In the corridors of the Margao Municipal Council (MMC), however, tender coconuts or coconuts are giving sleepless nights for the waste handlers, but for a different reason – disposal of tonnes of tender coconut shells and husk.
Doctor sends SOS
Health officials too have raised concern over the unsafe disposal of coconut shells by households since the shells act as a breeding ground for vector-borne diseases, including malaria and dengue.
Reason? Coconut shells have increased manifold in the commercial capital, so much so that the Margao civic body, which is struggling to put in place a waste collection and disposal mechanism, has run out of ideas on how to handle the waste.
Consider this: A city-based doctor last week sent an SOS to a Margao municipal official with a plea to lift away, not the garbage generated in the hospital, including bio-medical waste, but the coconut shells accumulated in the hospital premise. Reason? With tender coconut water promising several health benefits, tender coconuts find their way into the hospitals for patients, either on the recommendation of the doctors or brought by relatives.
Major headache
This is just a tip of the burning issue, with sources saying that apart from the tender coconuts sold by the mushrooming vendors, shells from the thousands of households become an issue for the Margao civic body to handle, with more often than not, the waste finds its way along the roadsides or on open space.
Take note, the door-to-door waste collectors engaged by the MMC stopped collecting the coconut shells or waste, as a result of which the waste remains within the premises or finds its way into a nearby black spot.
The disposal plan
In the recent past, the tender coconut waste and coconut shells were handed over to the city crematorium for disposal of bodies. However, if sources are to be believed, the coconut waste has increased manifold, so much so that the management of the crematorium has messaged the civic body not to send any more waste for want of space to stack the shells.
With Sonsodo struggling to handle the daily wet waste with trucks transporting the city’s wet waste to the Saligao plant, coconut waste, including shells, no longer finds its way to the waste dumping site. Instead, do not be surprised if one comes across a mound of tender coconut waste right behind the Margao municipal building at the old fish market, and along the roadsides at many places for want of dedicated space to dispose of the coconut waste.
Men at on the job
With rains subsiding during the last three days, Margao municipal men and machinery were on the job to lift mounds of coconut shells and husk from the roadsides and transport them to the open space near the KTC bus stand for disposal.
“Tender coconut vendors collect their waste at the end of the day in a bag before disposing of the waste near a black spot. Since the municipality stopped sending coconut shells and husk to Sonsodo, the waste is collected and dumped at one place,” remarked a worker.
He added: “Waste generated by the tender coconut vendors is one aspect. Just imagine the quantum of coconut shells generated in the city with the thousands of Goan households using coconut in their homes almost every day.”
