Team Herald
VASCO: Following the Herald report over Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) releasing leachate into the sea from its garbage treatment plant at Headland Sada, MMC Chief Officer Deepali Naik said that she has initiated an inquiry to find out why this was happening.
On June 11, 2017, Herald had reported how the Vasco civic body was violating Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, by not taking any steps to stop the flow of black liquid (leachate) from the mountains of garbage into the sea.
Speaking to Herald, Naik said, “After the issue was brought to my notice, I initiated an inquiry into the issue to find out why leachate was being released into the sea and why were we at MMC not intimated well in advance.”
She said that she visited the garbage plant recently and found rain water had soaked into the heaps of garbage and the same had formed into leachate. It started flowing into the sea once the rains started.
“After speaking with the staff present at the site I learnt that though provisions for a sewage connection to the plant had been made, the provision to connect leachate release into the sewerage line could not be made since the upgradation plans of the plant was in the pipeline,” she said.
“As the issue is serious and has to be resolved in a time bound manner, I have called for a joint meeting on Tuesday. All the agencies concerned including people handling the plant, our other municipal engineers, officials from PWD sewerage department and others have been asked to attend the meeting. PWD sewerage department officials have assured all help to us in resolving this issue. This issue has to be resolved on priority as even the MMC does not want or intends to pollute marine environment.”
