MARGAO
Joint inspection of the waste management activity at Sonsodo every fortnight by a team of Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) and Margao Municipal Council suggested by Margao MLA Digambar Kamat may raise hopes of close monitoring of the city’s garbage management.
Citizens from Margao, Fatorda and neighbouring Curtorim may have a question or two for the Congress-turned-Margao MLA “ When will the Margao Municipal Council stop piling wet waste inside the Sonsodo shed for want of a mechanism to dispose of the daily waste as per rule?
This question comes against the backdrop of the fact that it’s now a little over five months since the GWMC had prepared the spadework to rope in a contractor to handle the city’s daily wet waste unloaded at Sonsodo.
GWMC’s June 16 letter also prepared the ground for the MMC to take up the work of refurbishing the Sonsodo shed and also repair the road leading to the plant.
The GWMC had dashed off the letter to the MMC against the backdrop of the April 26 visit to Sonsodo by Waste Management Minister Atanasio Monserrate along with the MLAs Digambar Kamat, Vijai Sardesai and Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, besides Urban Development Secretary, Director of Municipal Administration Gurudas Pilarnekar, MMC Chief Officer civic officials and GWMC officials. One of the major decisions taken at the meeting was to set up two 25TPD bio-methanation plants at Sonsodo. And, pending the setting up of the two plants, the meeting had mandated the GWMC to prepare the tender for the Operations & Maintenance of the Sonsodo waste management facility.
Sadly, five months down the lane, not a single tender, be it for the operations and maintenance of the Sonsodo facility, tender to refurbish the shed or the construction of the road has seen the light of day.
Take note, the joint inspection by Kamat with GWMC and MMC officials has helped to streamline baling of dry waste at Sonsodo and the new facility at the Nessai industrial estate. However, the delay in roping in a private contractor to handle the daily wet waste has only left the MMC with the option to just dump garbage inside the plant without treatment.
While the GWMC had prepared the estimates for the two works with a mandate for MMC to seek all government approvals, including administrative nods, before floating the tenders, the exercise has failed to take off to date after the civic body requested the GWMC to take up the projects as depository works.
Says GWMC Managing Director Levinson Martins: “The corporation had prepared the estimates to float tenders, both the appointment of contractor as well as to refurbish the Sonsodo shed. As per the initial arrangement, the GWMC was supposed to prepare the estimates and MMC to float the tenders. Now, the MMC has requested the corporation to take up the works.”
Martins, however, pointed out that the ball lies in MMC's court to get all the approvals and arrange funds for the works.
Waste mound inside mega Sonsodo shed grows again
MARGAO:
With no waste treatment worth its name at the Sonsodo waste management shed, garbage has piled up inside the mega shed once again.
The Margao Municipal Council had twice got the waste piled up inside the plant in the last two years and spent a bomb to cart the waste out and remediate it by the GWMC-appointed contractor.
The ground reality suggests that the MMC have no other option than to engage a contractor to cart out the waste and remediate it to create space inside the shed before roping in a contractor to treat the daily waste.
Both GWMC and MMC officials in private admitted that with no treatment worth its name at the Sonsodo yard, the piled waste will have to be carted out for remediation to create space to treat fresh waste.
Sources in the know informed that the MMC had cleared a bill of Rs 85 lakh a year ago towards the payment to the contractor engaged to cart out the piled-up waste and remediate it. The same contractor was roped in again earlier this year as the shed almost reached a point of saturation with no space left for intake of fresh waste.
And, if sources are to be believed, the shed may again reach a state of saturation if the civic body does not comply with GWMC’s temporary suggestions to handle the daily wet waste.
