Waste from neighbouring villages continue to enter Margao unchecked
the goan I network
MARGAO
Black spots have come to stare at the Margao Municipal Council with the civic body surrounded by as many as 11 villages, including many villages along the coastal belt, which resembles urban towns playing host to hotels, restaurants and wide range of commercial activities.
Adding to the woes of the A Class Municipality, officials say, is the fact that most of the villages have no waste treatment facility, with the local panchayat bodies only collecting dry waste from the households in their jurisdiction. MMC officials say that this has resulted in unauthorised dumping of waste around and within the city limits throwing the civic body’s solid waste management programme in jeopardy.
MMC officials have brought this ground reality to the notice of the Director of Municipal Administration as the civic body has suddenly realised that the black spots threaten to derail the solid waste management programme with waste from the villages entering the city unchecked.
While the High Court of Bombay has directed the Margao Municipal Council to cap the five “black spots” – all located on the city borders, Municipal officials say that a permanent eradication of the black spots can be achieved only if waste coming from outside is capped by the villages.
“We are in the process of beautifying the five black spots identified by the High Court. But, even as we have taken the initiative to clear the black spots at Rawanfond, Aquem, Arlem, wholesale fish market and behind the Ravindra Bhavan, waste dumping has raised its ugly heads at other places. This only goes to show that waste dumped at the black spots comes from the neighbouring villages as the civic body collects waste door-to-door in the city,” remarked a senior MMC official.
Information revealed that the Margao Municipality has deployed two vehicles that leaves the Municipal garage at 8 am with a mandate to clear the black spots and waste dumped around the transfer stations in each ward. But, the problem is far from over, with waste coming into the city from the neighbouring areas.
To tide over the situation and put an end to unauthorised entry of village waste into the city, the Margao Municipal Council and the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) have knocked the doors of the Goa Waste Management Corporation to streamline waste collection at the neighbouring villages so as to achieve a permanent solution to the black spots.
MMC officials recently told the Director of Municipal Administration that 100 per cent segregation of waste in the city has not been achieved till date because the black spots receive mixed waste from the adjoining areas. In fact, Chief Officer Sidhivinayak Naik has pegged the amount of mixed waste received at the black spots from the villages to around 8-10 metric tons a day.
“Black spots are created
by waste generated in the city as well as outside. Hence,
the MMC has urged the Margao police to keep a vigil over the black spots,” the Chief Officer said.
