Team Herald
MARGAO: Keeping with his commitment to rid Sonsoddo of the garbage heap permanently Waste Management Minister Michael Lobo on Wednesday initially discussed the matter with Margao Municipal Councillors along with local MLAs Digambar Kamat and Vijai Sardessai and later visited Sonsoddo where he expressed shock and surprise over the changes since his last visit.
Speaking to media persons he said he is committed to permanently rid the garbage heap at Sonsoddo and said while it is expected to take two years to remove the heap, he said he would be trying to do it within a year by putting more machines.
At Sonsoddo he expressed surprise over the heap of dry waste that has accumulated at the very site which they were planning to utilize as a site to store the RDF and pointed out that this heap was not there during his last visit.
When he was told that MMC was sending three trucks of baled material per week, he retorted that it should actually be three trucks were day particularly as Karnataka is happy with the baled goods it gets from Goa.
The High Court this morning directed MMC to provide 5000 sq mts of land to keep the Refuse Derived Fuel that will be collected once the bio remediation process starts and the side shown by MMC was found to be inadequate with Vijai outright rejecting it and suggesting that he would show another site that is possession of the government.
Speaking to media persons he said since the same contractor who had done the bioremediation earlier was getting the contract he would speak to the person who had last time given his land to be used to set up the machines. “I am sure that he will give that land temporarily this time too and hopefully we shall get rid of this problem,” he said.
Lobo said he is willing to give the machinery and money to clear this mess and asked the MMC only to cooperate and give them the necessary land. He said he wanted to start the bioremediation before the feast of St Francis Xavier with two machines initially and said he would not mind using even four machines to clear the heap.
He said the municipal land has to be clearly demarcated and asked MMC to construct a compound wall enclosing its property and admitted that Fomento Green has to vacate from Sonsoddo so that the Solid Waste Management Corporation can do a good job.
“Chief Minister and I shall talk to Timblo once again after he returns to Goa and hopefully we should be able to convince him,” said Michael while disclosing that they already had two rounds of talks with Timblo.
MMC Chief Officer Siddhivinayak Naik said they have identified four spots where baling of the dry waste collected every day will be undertake and these include one plant in the Industrial Estate with the old fish market and SGPDA market area being the other two probable sites.
Incidentally MMC is collecting around 30 tonnes of segregated dry waste every day and the same has to be baled and dispatched to Karnataka. Michael announced plans to set up an incinerator in Goa to deal with the plastic wasted collected every day and added that a Saligao plant type but with lesser capacity will be set up ultimately at Sonsoddo once the heaps of accumulated garbage is removed.
