MARGAO
Commissioning of the 5TPD bio-methanation plant might have rung in good news for the Margao Municipal Council and citizens alike. However, waste managers, continue to grapple with waste management at the defunct garbage treatment plant at Sonsodo.
Consider this. Friday saw the waste stacked inside the plant in flames again while smoke was found billowing through the mega shed towards the Curtorim side.
That’s not all. The waste treatment plant was almost full to the brim again, leaving no option for the transporters to unload tonnes of waste on the approach road to the plant.
MMC workers handling the waste management at Sonsodo said the plant was engulfed by huge flames on Friday morning when they had gone to dump waste.
Curtorim residents pointed out they saw smoke billowing from the plant towards the village side, indicating something has terribly gone wrong inside.
This is not the first time that waste stacked inside the plant has been engulfed by fire and smoke, but a solution seems not forthcoming to date.
When the Goan called up MMC Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes, he said the recurring fires are not uncommon at the plant due to the formation of methane gas. “Since the waste is just stacked inside the plant without any treatment, the possibility of formation of methane gas is high. Hence, we find the recurring fires inside the plant,” he said.
The Chief Officer, however, said the MMC had floated an Expression of Interest (EoI) to run the plant, adding that the MMC would take a call on how to go about the matter in the coming days.
He further said a separate tender will be floated to cart out the garbage stacked inside the Sonsodo waste treatment plant. Thousands of tonnes of garbage have been stacked inside the defunct waste treatment plant for want of any treatment worth its name. In fact, the MMC had accorded its nod to rope in a contractor to handle the waste treatment plant for a year till all the planned bio-methanation plants are installed at Sonsodo, but in vain.
Sources in the know said the defunct waste management plant almost reached saturation stage on Friday, with no space inside to dump the daily garbage. Left with no option, the waste handlers unloaded truckloads of waste on the approach road to the plant on Friday morning.
MMC officials have been apprised of the prevailing situation at the plant, with a plea to deploy machinery to push the waste inside and compact the same to create additional space inside.
CO Agnelo said the officials concerned have been told to take stock of the situation to ensure that waste is not unloaded outside the plant on the approach road.
Around 35 tonnes of wet waste generated in the commercial capital every day is transported and unloaded at the defunct waste treatment plant. Given that the practice of open dumping of waste at Sonsodo has been banned and the remediation of the legacy dump is presently underway, the MMC has been left with no option but to dump the waste at the plant shed.
