Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) on Wednesday issued show-cause notices to six municipal councils for their failure to adhere to the Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSW) guidelines, thereby causing environmental pollution in the council jurisdiction.
The notices have been issued to the municipal councils of Bicholim, Pernem, Sankhalim, Quepem, Cuncolim and Canacona under the Environment (Protection) Act 1986.
The notices, answerable within seven days, ask “why the stringent legal action under section 5 and 17 of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 read with the provision of the Municipal Solid Waste Rules 2000, should not be initiated against you”.
The Board found that in all cases, municipal solid waste generated is handled in an environmentally unsound manner and in violation of the provisions of the Solid Waste Management Rules thereby causing environmental pollution in the vicinity.
“The Board continuously monitors all the municipal councils and village panchayats on the issue of handling of solid waste. We have observed that in many cases the municipal councils dump the waste in the open, don’t utilize the sites allocated for dumping of garbage, and also fail to furnish the details on quality and quantity of waste generated in the jurisdiction,” GSPCB chairman Jose Manuel Noronha said.
During the inspections undertaken at the waste dumping sites of the six municipal councils, it was found that approximately 57 tonnes of mixed waste had been dumped without proper segregation and that the organic waste convertors were not in operation.
In some cases, it was found that the dry waste was burnt in the open.
Noronha said that in the past the Board had issued show cause notices to the municipal councils of Margao, Vasco, Ponda and Panjim for violations of MSW Rules.
