DR. JOE D’SOUZA
Little knowledge is often termed as dangerous, just as we often say- “Empty vessels make the loudest noise.” Look at Goa today, each and every Goan wants himself to be counted amongst those considered as experts in the business of Solid Waste Management. Hence as we rightly say, too make cooks spoil the soup, in Goa, far too many garbage management experts, spread across Goa have totally soured the major challenges of the actual and the real garbage disposal systems of Goa.
Garbage, the world over is considered as a misplaced resource, and the best what the scientifically developed country achieve is to efficiently and effectively exploit or extract the resource potentials that is available in the garbage, with minimal cost - thus making garbage management profitable and beneficially to society.
Dr. H.Y. Karapurkar, in the early nineties, after serving as the Director of Agriculture in the Goa government, worked as a founder member of the Goa State Council of Science and Technology where we worked on a project on the use of microorganisms to improve garbage disposal systems in Panjim, using the facilities of the Department of Microbiology of Goa University to carry out research on this challenging topic. Shockingly, for the last decade the GSCST is dormant and not efficiently constituted.
In the early 1990s my student Vatsala Kamat painstakingly isolated and potentially showed for the first time that garbage laden microorganisms were capable of converting solid organic wastes into fertilisers. Her research was picked up by Excel Industries in Mumbai who successfully used microorganisms in the garbage to transform it into fertilizer.
Since 2012, as GSCST is defunct, the research on scientific issues in Goa is at a standstill. India being a tropical destination, deriving fertilizer from garbage is the best option for economic feasibility. Of course, the woody wastes, twigs, leaves and cellulosic besides paper can be easily transformed into what we general term as - refuge derived fuels.
One must realise that garbage fermentation and transformation is an extremely challenging and difficult job. Having myself worked in the world’s best fermenting technology laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA, I have a firsthand experience in fermentation of enzymes in controlled conditions which involve monitoring conditions in a fermenter, use of substrates, product formation temperature, pH, aeration and many other controls to help release the desired product at an optimal level. Be it insulin, cellulases, amino acids amylase, vitamins, growth hormones are much easy to control, monitor and produce. But garbage fermentation and treatment is extremely challenging and difficult to manage as the substrates are varied and heterogeneous in nature.
We are fully aware that the solid waste treatment plant at Saligao is based on methane generation with sulphates, nitrates, phosphates posing challenges. The technology used by the Hindustan Waste Management, Mumbai is of germany technology suitable for cold temperate climate. The methane generation is both expensive and not effective, since calorific value is low and fuel is not used as biomas nor is it effective in power generation. Do we realize that we Goans pay 13 lakhs per day for treating only 100 tonnes of garbage at Saligao! Goan garbage is best suited to be transformed into fertilizer or compost. Our forefathers did it but we now want Germans to manage our wastes at huge costs.
Look around Goa. The only guiding factor to disposal of garbage in Goa is ‘not in my backyard’. No doubt, each and every panchayat has systems in place to find quick and easy ways to dump the garbage the village generates at road corners, private forests, orchards, water bodies of some neighbouring local body.
For instance, commercial complexes, hotels and casinos from outside Panjim, often from Merces and beyond are seen and caught dumping the hotel wastes in Central Panjim, very early in the morning around four am. 95% of the garbage on Panjim streets is not by residents but by casinos, cruise boats, tourists and visitors to the capital city besides the hotels from beyond CCP limits. When I personally apprehended the offenders, I was questioned as to what my problem was.
I was told that Panjim city has sweepers, trucks, rag pickers to take care of the garbage and hence they use the facility. As CCP does not react or act against this dumping, the problem still exists.
Hence, the segregated wastes of residents of Panjim is mixed with unsegregated wastes disposed by offenders and hence the scientifically disposed and unscientifically dumped garbage, when taken to the dump yard becomes a hazardous and toxic heap over time. Dead cats, dogs, rats, battery wastes, biomedical wastes, with syringes needles, blades, broken glass, bulbs, e-waste and hospital wastes are present in all garbage dumps. Sonsoddo, Sada, Taleigao, Pednem, Mapusa, Cuncolim all attempted and pledged themselves to scientific solid waste disposal system but sadly even the industrial and hospital wastes find their way in the garbage pits or dumps. We must be alert that this is the prime cause of microbial resistance to antibiotics and drugs.
The scale of the fire at Sonsodo was huge because of the huge volume of Margao garbage which is extremely rich in organic matter from the market wastes of the commercial capital of Goa.
Disgustingly, with the fire, large quantities of toxic minerals have now leached into the underground water table. The wells are dangerously contaminated with toxic compounds from the leachates, besides pathogenic microbes. Not only at Sonsodo, garbage across Goa is the prime cause of pathos and pathogenesis. Goans across the state are lethargic, lackadaisically and dismissive to the grave challenges. We need to realize that cleanliness is next to Godliness to ensure quality life for the people of the state.
