MAPUSA
The collection and disposal of unsegregated garbage has emerged as a major challenge for the Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC), with Chief Officer Kaushik Desai urging residents to separate their waste before handing it over to garbage collectors.
Desai said the problem was a legacy issue that had persisted since he took charge, complicating the council’s efforts to manage the town’s garbage scientifically and prevent indiscriminate dumping.
“Unsegregated garbage is given by many people. That becomes another major headache for us,” Desai said, pointing out that the council was caught in a difficult situation when residents handed over mixed waste.
Under the Solid Waste Management Rules, waste must be segregated into four categories. While separating wet and dry waste should be relatively straightforward, many residents continue to hand over mixed garbage in bags, making it difficult for sanitation workers to collect and process it appropriately.
Desai said the council was not supposed to accept waste that had not been segregated as required by the rules.
However, refusing to collect such garbage could lead residents to dump it at public places, creating another problem for the civic body.
“If we don’t collect the garbage, where is it going? It will be dumped somewhere in the town. So, it is a catch-22 situation for the municipal council,” he said.
The chief officer said the council had penalised some individuals and housing societies for violations, with one or two societies reportedly fined in the past two months. He stressed that enforcement alone would not resolve the problem and called for greater public cooperation.
Desai acknowledged that there could be instances when household garbage was not collected for a day or two. He urged residents facing such problems to inform ward supervisors or the municipality so that the complaints could be addressed.
The MMC, meanwhile, is attempting to beautify spots where garbage was previously dumped. However, Desai said waste management required a coordinated approach rather than a single solution, with residents playing an equally important role.
He appealed to citizens to hand over segregated waste to garbage collectors, stressing that proper segregation at source was essential for efficient collection, scientific processing and keeping Mapusa clean.
