MARGAO
Bio-remediation of the Sonsodo legacy dump has resumed at the Margao Municipal waste dumping site with the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC)-appointed contractor starting the work on Wednesday.
The bio-remediation operations, however, have commenced on a small keynote with showers lashing the State in the last few days. The GWMC Managing Director, Levinson Martins, however, said the contractor will mobilise the machinery to resume full-swing operations at the site.
While a lone machine is at work at Sonsodo site, Martins informed that the contractor will mobilise the machinery and other logistics at the site in the next 10 days, before the exercise goes in full swing from November 1.
He pointed out that the contractor has opened the covers of a portion of the Sonsodo legacy dump to take up the remediation work. “Since showers have lashed the State, including Margao in the last few days, a major portion of the dump still remains covered with the tarpaulin sheets,” he said.
The Goa Waste Management Corporation and the Margao Municipal Council has been set a final deadline to complete the work of bio-remediation by February 2023. The Court, in a PIL filed by the Citizens of Sonsodo through its secretary Roque Mascarenhas, had warned at the last date of hearing that the GWMC Managing Director and the MMC Chief Officer will be personally held responsible if the legacy dump is not cleared by February 2023.
Incidentally, the GWMC Managing Director, in his affidavit, filed before the High Court, had pointed out that the Corporation has time till February 23, 2023 to complete work of the remediation of the Sonsodo legacy dump.
Around one lakh cubic meters of the legacy waste remains to be cleared from Sonsodo within the next four months.
