Althoughstarred hotels boast of taking proper steps to dispose plastic garbage generatedby them, the reality is quite otherwise.
Fivestar hotels in South Goa make tall claims of recycling measures, composting andreusing of sewage water. But plastic waste from these hotels reaches far andwide in agricultural fields, forest land and even remote hills.
“Starredhotels from Benaulim and Colva have been caught dumping garbage in neighbouringfields and private property. Recently almost fifteen trucks of garbage werefound in forest land in Cansaulim,” said Judith Almeida, member of the ColvaCivic and Consumer Forum who has been battling the hotel lobby in the HighCourt for over three years.
“Tetrapacks, broken mugs, plastic bottles with five star hotel logos are found inagricultural fields, overnight. This monsoon, farmers in Colva have notcultivated half their fields because they cannot clear the garbage dumped inthe field over the last one year,” Almeida said.
MosesVaz, Majorda Sarpanch confirmed this. He said “Villagers have been forced tostop cultivating their fields, which are inundated by waste waters from fivestar hotels”. Some hotels even discharge their sewage in fields, privateproperties, rivers, beaches and other water bodies. This contamination can leadto a major epidemic.
EnvironmentMinister, Alina Saldanha admitting to the menace of the hotel industryexplained, “Goa’s biggest problem is garbage, especially plastic waste. And thebiggest hurdle to plastic is non-availability of land. By the fourth week ofSeptember, my department will issue separate guidelines for segregation,disposal of waste and sewage.” “Strict and stringent action will be takenagainst erring starred hotels,” she added.
Accordingto Benny D’Costa, who handles garbage segregation and collection ofnon-biodegradable waste across panchayats, the Pollution Board gives licensesto contractors to deal with plastic waste only after details of thesub-contractors (employed by the contractors), who are mostly from Belgaum andother states are disclosed.
“Most of the timethese suppliers are not registered since garbage and recycling industry is anunorganized sector,” D’Costa said.
