ROHAN SHRIVASTAV
rohan@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Indiscriminate dumping of garbage in the illegally dug up pits close to the riverfront at Lokotsav festival venue next to Kala Academy is raising a stink and has become a health hazard.
When Team Herald visited the venue of the festival it was seen that while the waste from the portable bathrooms was being discharged in the two open soak pits, waste from the temporary kitchens of food stalls, as well as the dry waste including plastics and tins, generated at the festival was dumped in the same pits.
Plastic bags full of garbage were buried in the heap of mud close to the walkway-cum-cycle track at the riverfront.
Officials at the waste management and technical cell of Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) said that the “the agency appointed by the Directorate of Art and Culture has failed to comply with the laid down guidelines for waste management”.
The CCP officials said that as per the terms and conditions, the waste has to be segregated at the venue before handing over to the CCP for disposal; however, it was not followed entirely by the agency appointed.
When contacted, CCP Mayor Rohit Monserrate said that a team of CCP sanitary inspectors will be sent to “inspect the site and take appropriate action”.
Director of Art and Culture Sagun Velip claimed that the garbage was “not deliberately dumped in the soak pit and denied that garbage bags were buried in heaps of mud at the riverfront. However, O Heraldo is in possession of photographic evidence where garbage was buried under the heaps of mud.
“Since the venue of the festival is extremely close to the River Mandovi, the wind speed is more there as a result of which plastic packets must have blown and got deposited into the soak pits. Water discharged in the soak pit will get absorbed in the sand and as far as garbage is concerned we will ask the agency to check,” Velip said.
However, the Director of Art and Culture failed to explain how tins and cartons full of garbage could possibly get “blown “into the soak pits.
When it was pointed out that paper and plastic plates/cups are thrown all over the walkway-cum-cycle track along the stretch starting from Kala Academy’s Darya Sangam up to the Panjim Gymkhana ground by the labourers and those visiting the food stalls at the Lokotsav venue, Velip said, “I don’t think that what you are saying is correct. You mean to say our people lack civic sense?”
He further said that the permission to dig soak pits “may” have been taken from the Urban Health Centre, Panjim.
When O Heraldo contacted the Health Officer at the Panjim Urban Health Centre, Dr. Sunita Arlekar, she said that her office has not issued permission to the organiser of Lokotsav festival to dig soak pits.
“Our field healthcare workers will inspect the site and if there is anything which can lead to health hazard then required prevention and control measures will be taken. Subsequently, an explanation will be sought from those concerned,” Dr Arlekar said.
The festival came to a close late Wednesday evening.
