PANJIM: As the solid-waste management facility (SWMF) at Saligao is all set to be commissioned on May 30, the State government has directed the North Goa coastal panchayats to prepare a detailed plan on collection, segregation and transportation of the waste to be treated at the facility.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar chaired a high-level meeting on the solid waste management facility coming up at Saligao, which is expected to handle 125 metric tonnes of garbage from the coastal areas daily.
The meeting was attended by Ministers Alina Saldanha, Dilip Parulekar, Dayanand Mandrekar, Calangute MLA Michael Lobo, member secretary Levinson Martins, GSIDC managing director Sanjit Rodrigues, and officials of the Directorate of Panchayats and 23 coastal panchayats.
Speaking to Herald, Martins said that the panchayats have been asked to formulate a detailed plan on collection, segregation and transportation of the waste to the plant. This will include door-to-door collection, segregation at source and the transportation route.
“The panchayats are collecting the waste, but we want them to have the maximum efforts to collect more waste from residential and commercial establishments,” he said. “The plant will, however, not treat bio-medical waste and e-waste.”
However, MLA Lobo raised objection to segregation at source, stating that the state-of-the art facility was designed for treatment of mixed waste.
“Panchayats have failed to have total collection and segregation of waste. Hence, it would have been wise if the government could set up a waste collection station on the internal roads with separate bins,” he said.
