MARGAO
All appears not well at the Sonsodo waste treatment plant as smoke was seen emanating from the waste inside since the last two days.
While the Margao Municipal Council workers employed at the plant have been trying to cap the smoke since Monday, the incident has only brought to the fore that all is not well with the functioning of the plant.
If officials are to be believed, not all the equipment and machines installed inside the plant are in proper running condition. A couple of months ago, the treatment of wet waste inside the plant had come to a halt after the crane as well as the grab developed technical snags for want of regular maintenance.
The Margao municipality is now believed to have signed an annual maintenance contract with an agency to carry out the maintenance of the waste treatment plant. The contractor is believed to have raised his bill, which is to be paid by the civic body.
Sources in the civic body informed that the municipal babus have still not put a mechanism in place for the smooth operation of the waste treatment plant. Though garbage comes under the jurisdiction of the MMC sanitation section, matters relating to the plant and machinery are being handled by the municipal technical section.
Sources said the existing system, wherein municipal engineers are being put in charge of the treatment plant in rotation, has not helped to bring about the desired change in the ground reality.
Reports indicated that some of the officials of the technical section have been working hard to ensure that the plant runs smoothly without much problem.
Officials in the know suggested that the civic body should give charge of the waste treatment plant to a dedicated engineer instead of rotating it amongst engineers.
It’s now nearly nine months since the MMC had taken charge of the Sonsodo facility from Fomento Green on February 20. Sadly, the ground reality inside the plant has not changed for the better.
Interestingly, the outgoing council had mooted a host of bio-methanation plants to resolve the mess, in the bargain ignoring the requirements of the existing waste treatment plant to treat the daily wet waste.
Sadly, neither the bio-methanation plants have become a reality to date nor the MMC had taken serious measures to ensure that the existing plant takes care of the daily waste pending the adopting of the new technology for waste treatment.
Incidentally, government-appointed Margao Municipal Administrator, Prasanna Acharya is not a stranger to the Council, having worked as the Chief Officer in the past. With curtains coming down on the term of the elected council, officials in the corridors of the civic body say the responsibility now lies on the municipal administration and the Chief Officer to work out a solution to the Sonsodo tangle.
