MARGAO
Even as candidates and their political masters anxiously await the results of Margao Municipal Council election, the new city fathers will have a task clear no sooner they get elected to the civic body on Monday “ how to handle the mound of waste lying inside the Sonsodo waste treatment plant.
If the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) had cleared the shed housing the waste treatment plant of untreated waste during the Covid lockdown last year, the shed is almost full again, with the daily waste dumped into the plant.
With questions being raised over the garbage treatment process at Sonsodo and the frequent breakdown of the cranes and other logistics, the waste treatment has reached a state of saturation with waste.
The heavy-duty crane, sources said was down and out a couple of days ago, affecting the handling of the daily waste unloaded at the plant. While the crane has been repaired now, officials say the time has come to take a holistic decision on how to go about the treatment of the daily waste generated in the commercial capital.
While Pune-based Urja Bio Systems Pvt Ltd is all set to install the city’s first 5TPD bio-methanation plant at the SGPDA market, the new councilors will have a mammoth task of finding a permanent solution to the problem.
Almost all the panels floated by the political parties and the civil society have promised a solution to the Sonsodo waste management problem in their election manifestos. What’s needed is a long-term solution and mere electoral promises will not suffice.
“The shed at Sonsodo is slowly getting full and saturated. There’s no treatment worth its name inside the plant. The crane only lifts the unloaded garbage and pushes it inside. In the event the crane develops a technical snag, a JCB is deployed to push the garbage further inside the shed to make room for fresh garbage daily,” informed an MMC official in the know.
He added: “This cannot go on. The first thing the new council will have to decide is to engage a contractor to cart away the thousands of tonnes of waste lying inside the plant before the onset of monsoons. This will help create space for the dumping of garbage during the rains. If not, the city will face an unpleasant situation during the monsoons.”
Last year, the GWMC Managing Director Levinson Martins had intervened and managed to remediate and cart away 2000 tonnes of waste lying inside the plant. Sources said the operation of carting the untreated waste from the plant and getting it remediated cost the civic body lakhs of rupees.
A similar situation stares at the civic body and the new council will have to take a call on the issue before the onset of monsoons.
