It is by an unusual yardstick that the residents of coastal Canacona are measuring the success of the tourist season – it is the amount of garbage strewn by the roadsides, rivulets and other water bodies in the taluka.
While none of the villages in Canacona taluka have garbage disposal plans in place, many tourism stakeholders have resorted to their usual practice of dumping garbage-filled bags by the roadside, along water bodies and other isolated places at night.
Garbage can be seen by the roadside at Khola, Agonda and Galgibag-Talpona belt in Poinguinim, besides parts of Loliem road leading to Polem beach. Most of these areas are already teeming with tourism activities and its effects are largely felt by the general public because of unmanageable garbage, an issue still unresolved by all local bodies.
“People running restaurants have been seen emptying buckets of leftovers into the river. They do so as soon as the sun goes down to avoid getting noticed by authorities,” said a resident.
The Canacona Municipal Council (CMC) has also blamed tourism establishments in villages for emptying loads of waste into CMC dustbins and at the entrance of their Dumane Garbage Treatment Plant.
Since the coastal villages have been faced with the issue yet again during this tourism season, sources informed Herald that locals have already begun to initiate plans to form vigilant groups to guard against reckless dumping of garbage.
“Given the enormity of garbage disposal on village roads and other water bodies, some villagers in Agonda even went to the extent of forming groups to nab the culprits red-handed during the last tourist season, after which the practice subsided a bit,” said a member of such group.
Incidentally, despite the court’s directive to mandatory earmark garbage disposal sites in each of the panchayats under Rural Garbage Disposal Scheme, not a single village in the taluka has put the scheme in place as yet.
Some panchayats have not even identified a garbage disposal site, while others have identified a space but are waiting for the necessary approvals needed for the operations.
According to Agonda Panchayat Secretary Damodar Kankonkar, the Panchayat had already earmarked the land required for garbage disposal. However, the acquisition process is still underway. There is a similar of affairs in other coastal and hinterland panchayats.
According to sources, most culprits who dispose off their waste along village roadsides and water bodies are mostly non-residents and are not bothered by the long-term environmental effects on the area.
