MARGAO: Yet another fire incident was reported at Sonsoddo on Thursday as the garbage dumped inside the waste treatment plant was engulfed in flames. This is the second such incident reported within a week which has brought the Margao civic body under the scanner. A similar incident was reported on Monday.
The officials of the Fire and Emergency Services, Margao said they received a call informing them about the incident at Sonsoddo at around 3.30 pm. The fire personnel, who rushed to the site, faced a tough time in moving inside the plant, as the site was full of garbage.
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“It took almost an hour to douse the fire”, the firemen said.
However, the repeated fire incidents have raised several questions with regards to handling and treating the waste dumped at Sonsoddo. Nearly 40 to 50 tonnes of waste is dumped inside the plant on a daily basis, but there is no mechanism in place to treat the waste which has caused the mess.
According to sources, the fire and smoke will continue to billow from the waste accumulated inside the plant due to the presence of methane. The council is still awaiting approval from the Department of Urban Development for the tender to rope in a contractor to move out the waste stacked inside the plant.
It is pertinent to note that the Goa Waste Management Corporation had tried to resolve the issue with regards to the waste dumped inside the plant by engaging a contractor at an estimated cost of Rs 86 lakh, but the contractor’s payments have not been cleared.
