The land fill site will be used for dumping inert material extracted after segregation of the waste at the dump at Sonsoddo. Deputy Chief Minister, Francis D’souza, Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardessai, Digambar Kamat, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, DMA Director Elvis Gomes, Chairperson Babita Angle, Vice-Chairperson Dorris Texeira and Chief Officer YB Tawde and others were present at the occasion.
After two and a half years of delay of handing over the allocation of land and constant back and forth juggling between the MMC and the directorate of Municipal Administration, the land fill site at Sonsoddo will now finally see the light of day.
The land fill is meant to store the inert waste, extracted during the segregation procedure at the site, and later other downsized dry waste, when door to door collection post segregation at the household, becomes a reality.
By clearing the dump at the plot opposite the plant, the land which is now under the dump will be recovered by the MMC for posterity. According to officials, a non-permeable layer beneath the landfill plot will prevent any kind of seepage into the land and as assured by them, the landfill will be free of flies and also smell.
While speaking at the occasion, the Deputy Chief Minister, Francis D’souza took a dig at the leaders of Margao and other areas saying that over a period of time, the city fathers have ignored the problem when garbage has to be the biggest priority today to any Municipal body. “Garbage and collection of revenue is a major challenge in Margao and if both the problems are solved effectively, the town is the only one which has the capacity of being the most self sufficient,” the Deputy CM said. “Unless all MLAs and Councillors of Margao come together and put up a joint fight against the menace, there won’t be any change for the better,” he added.
The integrated waste treatment plant set up at Sonsoddo mandates Fomento to set up a land fill site and a leachate treatment plant to tackle non-biodegradable waste and waste water. The absence of the land fill site resulted in waste finding its way into the existing Sonsoddo dump yard, further aggravating the waste problem at the site. The non-biodegradable waste, waste water and inert waste will now have a place for processing if all goes well with the clearing of the plot.
2 OUT OF 6 TASKS REMAIN
With the work on the construction of the landfill site to begin, the segregation at source will be the key to Margao having a functional garbage management collection and treatment.
At the last council meeting, the municipality had passed a resolution to outsource the garbage collection. Another key decision taken was to deploy a group of ten workers to wards to clear garbage from the streets. At this review meeting of garbage collection in Margao three action points were discussed – picking up garbage on time, housing societies cooperating with garbage workers and distributing100 small bins sent by the directorate of municipal administration (DMA).
DOOR TO DOOR: What next?
The MMC’s decision to outsource the door to door collection was on the lines of the decision taken by the high powered coordination committee, the DMA will have to revert to the MMC and the MMC has to send the financial outlay proposal following which the critical issue of funds will be sorted out. While the MMC has put the onus on the DMA for financial and infrastructure support, as of right now the self help groups have been contracted for door to door garbage collection but there still exists gaps such as the failure to transport segregated garbage at source to the treatment plant due to the lack of adequate
infrastructure.
