Site plays host to tons of dry waste dump; stagnated rainwater posing health hazard
MARGAO
Hazard a guess on the state of the Sonsodo landfill site – built around a decade ago for the storage of inert and other waste generated at the Sonsodo waste treatment plant.
Welcome to Sonsodo, presently under the High Court scanner after the Margao Municipal Council miserably failed to comply with its timelines to execute on a host of works proposed at the site.
While the Margao Municipal Council is on the job to comply with the High Court directions to put in place a host of projects at Sonsodo, the landfill site lies in a state of utter neglect and apathy by the authorities.
Just a casual look at the landfill site would reveal that the site which was supposed to stack inert is playing host to tons of dry waste. The landfill site is full to the brim with rain water, posing a health hazard to the surrounding locality as the site with stagnant water due to blockage of the site drainage with waste.
The prevailing sorry state of the landfill site has thrown up a question to the authorities, including the Margao Municipal Council – how come the landfill site is playing host to bundles of dry waste when the waste is required to be baled and transported to the Karnataka-based cement factories.
Take note, the dry waste has been lying inside the landfill site prior to the onset of monsoons. That’s not all. The authorities, including the Margao Municipal Council had all the time in the world to take measures to unclog the drainage of the landfill site, but the present conditions reveal the drainage was not cleared before the onset of monsoons.
When The Goan asked a senior Margao Municipal engineer to shed light over the present state of the landfill site, apt came a reply from the official that the civic body had already deposited an amount of Rs 1 crore for the repairs of the landfill site a couple of years ago.
In fact, the MMC official pointed out that the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) will now take up the work of repairs of the landfill site as per the submissions made in the High Court.
A glance at the High Court proceedings at a hearing held earlier this year revealed that the MMC counsel submitted before the Court that the MMC has already deposited Rs 1 crore as per the Court directions issued on December 6, 2019.
At the same hearing, the Advocate General further made a submission before the Court that the GWMC is in the process of tendering this work and all efforts will be made to complete the same at the earliest. On instructions, he states that the work will be completed in three months past monsoons preferably by the end of December 2023.
The moot question, however, remains unanswered – while the GWMC is expected to tender the repair work and complete the same by December 2023, how come the landfill site is stacked with tons of dry waste and why was the waste not removed from the landfill site before the onset of monsoons?
Apart from the dry waste, the landfill site is full to the brim with rain water, raising fears that it may offer a perfect breeding ground for vector borne diseases, throwing up further questions whether the MMC sanitation section and the Health Department conducted anti-larvae operations to keep mosquitoes at bay.
Incidentally, the landfill site was built by Fomento Green when the company was handling the waste at the treatment plant. The landfill site was once engulfed by a massive fire after tons of dry waste dumped by the civic body adjoining the landfill site caught fire, with the fire spreading to the site and damaging the landfill site.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the landfill site had come in handy for the Margao Municipal Council to stack the waste generated in the houses of Covid patients and in hospitals, before it was removed after the High Court took strong cognizance of the illegal dumping of waste at the landfill site.
