PANAJI
The municipal councils include that of Canacona, Sanquelim, Bicholim, Pernem, Cuncolim and Quepem and the notices come on the back of inspections carried out by the Pollution Control Board which has found that most councils had no clue as to what waste was being ‘treated’ at the site and how.
A common factor at all the ‘treatment’ plants was the absence of segregation of waste, indiscriminate dumping and even burning of plastic and other dry waste in complete violations of the municipal solid waste rules.
At the Canacona site, the Board has found that there was around 30 tonnes of mixed waste dumped at the treatment site as well as at the landfill site.
At Sakhali, mixed waste was being dumped, the landfill site was not in use and the council had no clue as to how much waste was being dumped there, what waste and what it was doing to treat it.
At Bicholim, the dry waste was being burnt, the organic waste converter was broken down, biomedical waste was being dumped and the council had no information about the type and quantity of waste that was being ‘treated’ at the site.
At Pernem, officials of the Board found that besides the dumping of mixed waste, its organic waste converter was not in use, the landfill site was not in use and the council was not keeping track of its waste generated and treated at the site.
In Cuncolim, the council was found guilty of burning dry waste including plastic, dumping biomedical waste at the site, the organic waste converter was not in operation, etc.
A similar repeated at Quepem where the inspectors noticed mixed waste being dumped into the organic waste converters, mixed waste was being burnt. The only thing different was that plastic bottles were being separated from the rest of the waste and stacked separately.
The notices were issued on Wednesday and the councils have been given seven days to ‘satisfactorily’ respond to the notice failing which action would be initiated.
