Old Goa, the UNESCO world heritage site, which is famous for its monumental churches has over the years, turned into an eyesore with garbage being dumped just few hundred meters away from the historic site, which is also the main parking area for vehicles during the Feast of St Francis Xavier.
Stakeholders in the tourism sector have blamed the authorities, mainly the panchayat for failing to tackle the issue of garbage menace which perhaps is among many reasons why the number of foreign tourists visiting the site has slowly started diminishing.
When Team Herald visited the site known as Bhakia property, which is on the left hand side on the way to Old Goa, barely a few hundred meters away from the heritage sites, they were greeted with stink and broken glass and bottles of wine, whiskey and beer besides plastic bags and plastic bottles, besides other trash all over the area. This created a very grim and unacceptable picture of the world famous heritage site, which not only gave a bad impression but also displayed the public and authorities apathy towards cleanliness.
“This is my second visit to Goa in seven years. Today, when I was travelling to Old Goa to have a glimpse of the world heritage site, I just stopped on the way to take a photograph of the wonderful coconut trees and there I noticed huge heaps of garbage just thrown away in big plastic bags. Times have changed. Garbage has spilled just few hundred meters away from the historic site, which is dangerous,” a British tourist Samuel Davies said speaking to Herald
In fact, most of the domestic and some foreign tourists too are to be blamed for the rising heap of garbage. Locals claim to have seen several tourists, who visit the site in the evening indulging in drinking and once the bottle is empty simply toss it where they please, without any responsibility towards cleanliness, specially at such close proximity to the world heritage sites.
“I have seen both locals as well as tourists throwing empty bottles into the property. Sometimes I have also seen people who come with their car and just throw away huge bags of plastic-filled with garbage. I think the Panchayat must act fast and get this garbage cleared as it is very near the world heritage site,” said Vignesh Hari Amonkar, a resident of Old-Goa
Garbage collection around the world is generally a government undertaking, along with education, health care, infrastructure and policing. However, in Goa it’s clear that solving the garbage menace requires full cooperation from ordinary citizens, who must separate dry waste from wet.
A heritage activist, Prajal Sakhardande said the ASI and State Archaeology must take cognizance of this and conduct a site inspection to solve this issue.
The large amount of garbage has also attracted dogs, which frequent the place in search of food and subsequently cause nuisance and inconvenience to the locals and tourists.
When contacted, Se-Old Goa Sarpanch, Janita Madkaikar informed that she will soon issue instructions for clearing the garbage from the property, which is spoiling the image of the world heritage sites just few hundred meters away.
“There is no place for dumping of garbage in Old Goa. Also, the people do segregate their waste into dry and waste during door-to-door collection. If that was done we would have taken the garbage at the treatment plant. In this case I will issue instructions for immediate removal of the garbage dumps,” she said
