MARGAO
Sunday saw Margao municipal workers engaged in dry waste baling at Sonsodo working in an unhygienic environment without basic amenities, including gloves, gumboots, masks etc.
That’s not all. These women workers collect rainwater in utensils and buckets to wash their hands and legs in the absence of a water facility, leave alone a drinking water facility.
The rains also brought to the fore the absence of a tarred road to the waste management shed, throwing up questions about whether the drivers driving the garbage trucks are destined to drive through the muck and katcha road.
That Sonsodo played host to piled-up dry waste only goes to suggest that dry waste baling has not been progressing satisfactorily.
When the Chairman of the Margao Municipal Sanitary Panel, councillor Camilo Barretto descended at Sonsodo to take stock of the situation in the wake of incessant rains on Sunday, he had to contend with issues relating to hygiene and sanitation as the women engaged in dry waste baling work were working without gloves, gumboots and water.
Leave alone drinking water, these women are forced to accumulate rainwater in utensils and buckets and use the same to wash their hands and legs.
As Camilo Barretto lent his ears to their problems, they poured their grievances saying they are forced to either store rainwater or fetch water from the neighbourhood.
After seeing the plight of the workers, Barretto told The Goan at the site that he is sad and ashamed to find workers working in such horrible conditions. “I have been told that these workers even reuse the raincoats dumped in the waste. The MMC ought to have provided raincoats, gloves and masks to every worker engaged in the baling operation. I feel pity that these workers have to work in such an environment to eke out a living,” Camilo lamented.
Demanding that workers engaged in baling and other garbage-related works should be made permanent, Camilo said he would take up the issue with Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar to resolve the grievances of these workers.
Questioning the delay in tarring the approach road to Sonsodo during the summer months, Camilo said the first heavy showers have made the road slippery, saying it should have been tarred before the monsoons to protect the garbage drivers from any incident.
When The Goan called up Margao Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar to shed light on complaints of workers engaged in baling in unhygienic conditions, he said workers usually tend to work on garbage without safety gloves and masks.
“I will find out why the workers were not wearing the gloves, masks and gumboots,” the chairperson said, even as he said the workers might not have had access to the water facility since the valve was put off.
Damu, however, said that only male workers will be henceforth engaged in dry waste baling operations given the nature of the work, while the existing women workforce will be drafted for road operations.
