CUNCOLIM: Many Cuncolikars including local politicians have worriedly asked for the village and its surroundings to be made into COVID containment zones. But there is another not so little containment challenge which is raising a stink in the village. And in times of maintaining absolute hygiene, this stink has hit the ceiling.
Cuncolim just hasn’t managed to contain its garbage from spreading. With no garbage collection since the last three weeks, the residents of Cuncolim town are facing a problem. Not just regarding their household generated waste but waste can be seen dumped in open spaces across the town, especially along the sides of the road.
It may be recalled that Cuncolim Municipal Council (CMC) had put a notice asking residents to dispose of their wet waste and to maintain their dry garbage at home until the door-to-door garbage collection was resumed.
While the cleaning of garbage on the roadside and market area has begun, the house-to-house garbage collection has been halted ever since sanitation workers had been detected to have contracted the COVID-19 infection.
As per precautionary measures, CMC had asked all labourers not to attend duty.
However, what comes as a relief is that all the persons amongst those workers who had tested positive have now recovered and are undergoing their quarantine period.
The official said that if everything goes well, then the council will resume the daily garbage collection activity from August 1.
Sources also informed that the work of treating dry and wet garbage is going on. It may be recalled that the council has outsourced the treatment plant to some private agency.
Reiterating that the garbage collection will resume soon, CMCM Chairperson Videsh Dessai said,” I appeal Cuncolkars to bear with the Council and not to panic. Our workforce that deals with garbage collection have been badly affected due to COVID-19”. Other councillors have concurred with Dessai and asked locals to cooperate with CMC.
However, the locals are blaming the council for abruptly stopping garbage collection without any plan B in place.
Narayan Naik asked why the council could not outsource the garbage collection temporarily or bring in daily wage workers for the interim period until the situation returns to normalcy.
