SHOAIB SHAIKH
PANJIM: Reeling under the pressure of treating garbage, Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) is setting up a wet-waste treatment plant with biogas digester technology in Tonca.
Highly placed sources in the CCP informed Herald that the government has initiated the process for administrative approval to set up the wet-waste treatment plant within the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation.
The source said, “CCP will set up a 10-15 tonnes wet-waste treatment plant on government land in Tonca. Files have already been moved for the purpose. We shall have the plants ready in three months.”
The proposed plant is expected to be set up next to sewage treatment plant (STP) at Tonca.
“Anaerobic biogas digesters are airtight reactors in which organic waste is decomposed and transformed into biogas by a biological process called anaerobic digestion. Biogas is recovered and transformed into heat or any other form of energy. The remaining sludge contains many nutrients and can be used in agriculture (optionally after an aerobic post-composting)”, added experts.
It maybe recalled that the CCP Commissioner Shashank Tripathi had recently stated that the Solid Waste Management Plant (SWMP) at Saligao is overburdened beyond its capacity. “We will have to take responsibility to treat our waste and not let the treatment plant collapse. We have to look after our waste,” he had said on that note.
Panjim generates 30 tonnes of wet-waste and CCP was sending 10 tonnes of this to be treated at the Saligao plant. However, the Commissioner had indicated that CCP will have to treat its waste.
As part of the long term solution, in 2017 CCP had handed over 1.71 lakh square metres of land under its possession at Bainguinim to the government to set up a waste treatment plant. However, the matter has been pending and the Commissioner said that the environment impact assessment (EIA) is yet to be completed.
