TEAM HERALD
BICHOLIM
The Mineral Foundation of Goa (MFG) in coordination with Sanquelim Municipal Council (SMC) has initiated the ‘Nirmal Gram’ project on solid waste management at the community level in Virdi.
As part of the project, awareness programme was organized in Virdi during the traditional Kalotsav (Jatra) of Shri Mahadev Devasthan on Saturday.
The event was used as a platform to reach out to the entire village and beyond.
The stalls installed with banners, leaflets and visual media, stood out between the tea and toy shops and gathered a lot of onlookers. Through simple games, the people got a chance to learn about different kinds of waste and ways to segregate them.
All the shops were provided with garbage bags to store its dry waste (non-biodegradable/recyclable waste).
On the second day, cleanliness of the temple premises and surrounding areas were carried out by the Foundation team along with SMC team.
Members of the public, Dinesh Kamat, Nilesh Kamat and others also participated in the cleanliness drive and 19 kgs of waste was collected and transported to the recycling centre in Panjim.
MFG and SMC plans to conduct awareness campaign among the community on a large scale and motivate people to segregate the waste at source (at house).
SMC will collect dry waste from households and collect it at a Recycling Centre set up in the village by MFG for further segregation.
The practice is expected to help manage 90% domestic solid waste and will reduce pressure on landfills and environment. The project planned over a period of 2 years is aimed at making Virdi village a model case study for other areas to replicate.
