MAPUSA: The Pilerne Citizen Forum and Calangute Constituency Forum (CCF) have threatened that the residents would be forced to take to the streets and agitate if the government fails to find a solution to the stench emanating from the Solid Waste Management plant at Saligao-Calangute plateau within a month.
Taking cognizance of a report that appeared in Herald on Sunday, the NGOs addressed a press briefing to highlight the issues plaguing the residents of Calangute and Saligao constituencies. The press briefing was held at a hotel in Panjim, on Tuesday.
Calangute Constituency Forum President Premanand Divkar highlighted the sad state of this solid waste management plant at Saligao and criticized the move of going ahead with the ODP without having proper infrastructure to deal with the garbage.
“Over 27 panchayats are disposing off their solid waste at Hindustan Waste Treatment Pvt Ltd. This plant was supposed to treat the garbage from Calangute and its surrounding areas. Today, several villages from North Goa are sending in their garbage here although it does not have the capacity to treat it. Before the plant was made operational, there was no foul smell or air pollution (in Saligao or Calangute),” Divkar said.
“Right now there is a need to sort out the functioning of the garbage plant and stop the collection of garbage from the surrounding areas for the time being. The garbage that is dumped there needs to be disposed and cleared on priority as it will seep into the land and pollute out the water bodies,” he added.
Pilerne Citizens Forum President Prakash Bandodkar pointed out that it was told to them that this plant would treat garbage only from Calangute, Saligao and its surrounding areas but today garbage from across Goa is dumped there.
“The plant emits foul smell throughout the day and it gets difficult for us to move out of our houses. There is a garbage dump also outside the plant now and the waste is seeping into the land which is further polluting our wells. If this is not cleared within one month, we will burn effigies of the Calangute and Saligao MLA on the streets,” Prakash threatened.
A local and affected resident from Candolim, Damian Telles pointed out that the local MLA had earlier said that this garbage plant is a state-of-the-art facility where picnics could be held. “I would like to ask our MLA, till date how many picnics have been held at this spot. All our wells have also got spoilt due to the mismanagement at this plant,” he said.
