MARGAO
The delayed retreat of monsoon this year has delayed bioremediation of the Sonsodo legacy dump by around a month. And, further delaying the remediation work are the unseasonal showers lashing the state in the last couple of days.
The Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC), however, is bracing up to uncover the tarpaulin sheets protecting the legacy dump, even setting a tentative time-frame to complete the remediation work at Sonsodo in the next two months.
A visit to Sonsodo has revealed the legacy dump is still covered with tarpaulin sheets, indicating remediation work is yet to resume at the site. However, machinery and heavy-duty trucks were at work at the site to transport the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) generated during the remediation process to the Karnataka-based cement factories.
The huge mounds of waste covered with tarpaulin sheets give an impression that the GWMC needs to cover a lot of ground before the legacy dump is finally remediated and the site restored to its original condition.
GWMC managing Director Levinson Martins, however, begged to differ. He said the huge mound of waste adjoining the Curtorim road is not the legacy waste, but the RDF which is to be transported to the cement factories outside the state.
In fact, while the GWMC is bracing up to remediate the balance portion of the legacy dump, the agency is facing a challenge of sorts to quickly lift away from the site the RDF as well as inert generated by the remediation process.
“The GWMC has almost remediated around 65-70 per cent of the legacy dump before the onset of monsoons. But, one will still find a huge mound of waste at Sonsodo. These mounds are not legacy as it appears, but the RDF which is being transported to the cement factories in Karnataka”, Martins said.
He added: “Initially, we had planned to execute the RDF transportation work in the first week of October, assuming the rains would subside and monsoon would retreat. However, the plan went haywire due to the delay in the retreat of monsoons and ongoing showers. We had no option but to wait for the rains to stop”.
Around 150 truck-load of RDF is presently lying at Sonsodo, with Martins saying that Sonsodo will look differently minus the waste mound once the RDF is transported to the cement factories. Tons of inert generated during the remediation process needs to be carted away from the site, he added.
Dump will enable MMC plan waste management programme: GWMC
THE GOAN NETWORK
MARGAO
From the initial proposal to cap the waste mound site on the lines of Gorai-Mumbai to remediation of the dump yard, the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) says the Sonsodo legacy dump will enable the Margao Municipal body to plan solid waste management programme to take care of the waste imbroglio.
Spread across an area admeasuring 16,000 square meters, the Sonsodo legacy dump was sought to be capped by the civic body on the lines of Gorai dump, Mumbai at Rs 8 crore. The Goa State Pollution Board (GSPCB) Chairman Dr Jose Manuel Noronha and Member Secretary Levinson Martins intervened and made a strong case with former chief minister late Manohar Parrikar in support of bio-remediation.
Reason: The duo were of the firm opinion that the Margao civic body will forever lose the prime land admeasuring 16,000 square meters if the same was capped. In fact, the land being a scarce commodity, both Dr Norohna and Martins stressed that the advantages of remediation far outweigh capping, insisting that the MMC would not only get back the land but also address a host of environmental issues.
It was initially estimated that the Sonsodo legacy dump plays host to around 2.35 lakh tons of waste and that it would cost the exchequer a whopping Rs 40-odd crore to remediate the dump.
GWMC Managing Director, Levinson Martins says though the initial estimates have pegged around 2.35 tons of waste at the dump, the tonnage may come down or may go up depending on the depth of the dump yard.
“So far, the contractor might have remediated over a lakh ton of waste. We have already found land near the Komex plant, but we have no idea whether the dump is a quarry towards the roadside,” he said.
