MARGAO
Just hazard a guess at how much payment has been made by the Margao Municipal Council over the last week towards the transportation of Sonsodo waste to the Cacora waste treatment plant.
Believe it or not, a payment close to one crore rupees, around Rs 98 lakh to be precise, has been made to the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) by the Margao Municipal body towards the cost of waste transportation from Sonsodo to Cacora. If one compiles the total amount paid by the Margao Civic body to the Waste Management Corporation, the Civic body is believed to have paid around Rs 1.20 crore to the GWMC solely for the waste transportation from Margao to Cacora.
Take note, the payment does not include the waste processing fee and is purely spent on the transportation of the city’s waste to Cacora for treatment.
Even as the Margao Municipal Council braces to receive a fresh bill from the GWMC for waste transportation pertaining to the last 2-3 months, questions are being raised in the corridors of the civic body and outside about how long the civic body will continue spending taxpayer money only on waste transportation, especially when the Sonsodo site has been cleared of the legacy dump as well as the waste piled up inside the waste management shed.
In fact, officials in the know say it’s high time the city fathers and the municipal babus, along with the powers that be controlling the Margao Municipal Council, sit with the government to make a firm decision on setting up a waste treatment plant at Sonsodo to cater to the city’s requirements.
“It pains when precious revenue running into lakhs of rupees is being paid just for the transportation of waste from Sonsodo to Cacora. This cost could have been saved if the MMC had set up its own plant to treat the city’s waste,” the official said.
He added: “Just imagine a situation if the Goa Waste Management Corporation raises a further bill on waste processing at the Cacora plant. The MMC has already received a bill amounting to a whopping Rs one-odd crore from the GWMC for waste processing at the Saligao waste treatment plant. And, going by the waste transported by the MMC to the Cacora plant for treatment, the waste processing fees may cross the Rs three crore mark.”
What has raised concerns is the fact that neither the Chief Minister-headed High Powered Coordination Committee (HPCC) on Sonsodo has met so far, nor has the civic body taken any proactive steps on how to go about waste management at Sonsodo. “It appears the MMC is content with the transportation of Sonsodo waste to Cacora treatment. The same amount spent on waste transportation and waste processing can be invested by the Civic body in a waste treatment plant of its own at Sonsodo,” an official added.
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Gasification tech plans stuck without tender
Even as the Chief Minister-headed High Powered Coordination Committee (HPCC) is yet to meet to take a decision on the waste treatment plant at Sonsodo, the gasification plant proposed by the Goa Energy Development Agency (GEDA) at Sonsodo has also yet to see the light of day.
As a result, the Sonsodo legacy dump, which has been remediated by the Goa Waste Management Corporation at a cost of crores of rupees, is lying idle. And, so is the Sonsodo waste management shed, which has not been put to use since the piled-up waste was carted out and remediated by the GWMC last year.
The situation raises the question of why the government had to spend crores of rupees of taxpayer money on the remediation of the Sonsodo legacy dump if the land is not being utilised for garbage management by the civic body.
When 'The Goan' called up a senior GEDA official to shed light on the gasification plant proposed at Sonsodo by the agency, the official said that the tender for the installation of the 10-tonne plant has yet to be floated. "The process to float the tender for the 10-tonne gasification plant is underway. The tender will be floated after completing the formalities,” the GEDA official said.
While GEDA will be floating the tender for the installation of the gasification plant, the cost of the plant, estimated at around Rs 6-7 crore, will be borne by the civic body.
MMC officials said the proposed gasification plant, though not considered a permanent solution to the Sonsodo garbage problem, is welcome since the plant promises to treat mixed waste generated in the city, particularly at the black spots.
