the goan I network
VASCO
Despite a hue and cry over pollution in Port Town due to handling of bauxite cargo at Berth No 10, another ship with around 50,000 metric tonnes of bauxite is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday morning.
This will be the third consignment of bauxite to be loaded at Berth No 10 in around a month’s time.
After Goa First, an NGO, complained to the Goa State Pollution Control Board on Monday, activists have put in a string of demands and have suggested carrying out bauxite handling at the port’s outer anchorage.
Activists said handling of bauxite at the port’s outer anchorage would resolve 3 major issues while ensuring the port sustains itself. They also said that coal handling operations at Berth No 10 & 11 were stopped by GSPCB due to it’s proximity to the city.
Residents and activists have now slammed GSPCB for permitting bauxite operations at Berth No 10 at MPT.
Activist Savio Corriea told media that the bauxite cargo should be handled at the port’s outer anchorage because this could ensure port sustains itself and yet there is no pollution in the city. “If you want bauxite as a cargo and the port has to sustain, then why not handle it offshore or at outer anchorage and transport it by barges at certain point and then take it by road from there? I think authorities have to apply their mind and this handling at Berth No 10 in close proximity to the city cannot go on for long”, said Corriea.
“Handling bauxite at Berth No 10 is a grim reminder that enforcement agencies and MPT are hand-in-glove. Bauxite is a powder material and strong breeze is enough to move it all over the city. The food of labourers at Kharewado jetty is covered with this dust and this is a serious irresponsibility on the part of MPT. When Bauxite is available in Goa and there is no ban
on mining it, then why should we get it from elsewhere”, questioned Corriea.
Social activist Preetam Keluskar also echoed the same sentiments and said bauxite was being brought into the State from other parts of the country for a unit in Belgaum which uses it as a raw material.
He said, “if bauxite is handled at the port’s outer anchorage, MPT could resolve three major issues. One, it could sustaining itself as a port; two, pollution in the city would reduce drastically and three, there would be no movement of trucks carrying bauxite in Vasco.
He also said the accident rate would reduce and barge owners who are struggling with their business after the mining ban, could find this as an alternative.
Keluskar said, “I fail to understand how GSPCB functions... while they themselves banned handling of coal at Berth No 10 & 11 due to it’s proximity to the city, they have somehow allowed bauxite which is even worse”.
He said, just as coal handling operations were moved from Berth No 10 to Berths 5, 6 & 7, they must move bauxite to the port’s outer anchorage.
