One of the greatest failures of the current and past ruling establishments is its inability and unwillingness to solve the age old garbage problem or the waste management in Goa. The series of failures on the part of the civic bodies and government officials with respect to planning, executing and handling of the waste coupled with financial mismanagement has only made matters worse at Sonsoddo and other parts of the state.
There are numerous foundation stones being laid across Goa by undeserving politicians for projects which never went beyond the PR exercise. If the past and present ministers wasted time and tax payers money to draw political mileage, don’t you think it is high time we inscribe their failures in the same manner?
Why are civic bodies and successive governments turning a blind eye to a problem that has almost reached catastrophic proportions? Perhaps, the reason could be that the waste management project is not as lucrative or easy as others like roads, buildings and mining. Or perhaps the mountain of garbage is not as appealing as the mine rich hills and concrete structures. Whatever the reason, it may not be fair to blame it entirely on the government and its ministers as the lack of proper civic sense among Goans compound the problem even further. Roadsides, paddy fields, lakes and rivers littered with garbage dumped by households, just does not help the cause either. Everyone seems to be only interested in getting the thrash out of their own house or property without bothering much about where it is disposed off.
Nitoll Goy and Swach Bharat are very powerful slogans coined by the State & Central Government respectively, but unfortunately these initiatives are not backed by appropriate action and as a result remain confined to cosmetic cleaning drives only. The gigantic pile of thrash at Sonsoddo is undoubtedly the greatest disaster in Goa, even worse is the lack of interest in solving this problem which needs to be tackled on a war footing, sooner rather than later!
