On the evening that Margao reverberated to the sounds of the dhol and other percussion instruments and the people applauded the mythical scenes depicted in the Shigmo floats, a couple of kilometres away fires blazed at the garbage dump. It was, in a manner of speaking, a reminder from the dump to the local municipal council that the latter’s priorities have been sidelined. This is the third fire at the dump since May last year, and all the while the Margao Municipal Council has been pushing files in attempting to find a solution to the growing mountain of refuse.
The fire on Sunday blazed for 17 hours before it was doused by the fire and emergency services teams. The fires at the dump in the past months had not been easy to put out, and the first one in May last year had raged on for days, forcing the closure of a school in its vicinity for two weeks. There had been mud used in attempts to extinguish the fire and even enzymes procured from a company in Mumbai. Even after the fire had eventually been put out, the smoke that had emanated from the dump had hung over the area for days. Besides the amount from the tax payers that was spent on fighting the blaze, MMC has also been fined Rs 1.2 crore as penalty for pollution.
The Sonsoddo dump is one that refuses to be tamed. For decades garbage was merely dumped at the site, with various projects undertaken to treat the garbage, but the political will to see that this mountain of garbage is reduced, just didn’t exist. The fire is a flaming reminder that the dump and the garbage that exists there need to be treated, and a permanent solution found. Just when MMC had decided that bio-methanation plants in other locations in the town would be installed, so as to reduce the load of garbage that will go to the Sonsoddo plant, came the fire. The MMC has to act with a sense of urgency on clearing the Sonsoddo mess, before there is another blaze in the summer months that lie ahead.
Crores of rupees spent on undertaking garbage treatment ventures at Sonsoddo over the years have gone up in smoke, as neither the council nor the government that has regularly intervened in attempting to solve the problem have been successful. Fresh garbage has just been dumped over the existing waste and the tame measures taken to tackle the problem have not helped solve the issue. The result is that MMC has been constantly attacked and criticised for its failures in handling the dump. Can MMC finally have the upper hand in the Sonsoddo mess and silence its many detractors?
It will be an uphill task for the council whose report card on Sonsoddo is full of failures. It has never been chalked up a success where Sonsoddo is concerned. But, in this, the assertion of MMC chief officer Ajit Panchwadkar that, ‘We will succeed in removing the Sonsoddo dump and also make sure that another dump isn’t created again’ is heartening. But, it will not serve any purpose if this remains a mere declaration. It is now for MMC and the chief officer to act upon this statement. Now that Goa has a department for waste management, there has to be a concerted effort made to solve the Sonsoddo mess for all time. The longer the garbage is allowed to rot at the dump, the more will the issue fester and evade a solution.
