Team Herald
MARGAO: Door-to-door segregated waste collection is all set to commence in Margao from February 1, with the Margao Municipal Council being assured all support by the Directorate of Municipal Administration.
The DMA has offered to depute one of its staff to set the system in place.
After an hour-long meeting between the MMC staff, councillors, Director of Municipal Administration and Solid Waste Management Corporation it was decided to divide all 25 wards into zones with a dedicated vehicle collecting the waste from specific zone.
“This will enable us to identify where the mixed waste is coming from and accordingly address the problem there,” said R Menaka, Director of Municipal Administration. However she said they need data and information which would be crucial.
Promising to send the format to collect the data within the next two days, she appealed to the council to forward the data to them at least by January 14, to which MMC Chairperson Dr Babita Prabhudessai agreed to.
MMC was asked to appoint a person as Solid Waste Management Co-ordinator, who would preferably be an engineer having a diploma and who would co-ordinate and monitor the segregated waste collection. However, till then Gaurav Pokle of GSUDA would assist the MMC.
To make the segregated waste collection successful in all 25 wards, it was decided identify the waste generators and particularly the bulk waste generators. DMA promised to provide polythene bags to collect the waste and also bins.
Prashant Sardessai, Adviser for Fomento Green welcomed the initiative of segregated waste collection and said there are other issues that need to be addressed and pointed out that they have been struggling for 6 years to address some issues.
Pointing out that their composting plant could not be used for the last many years because they have not been receiving compostable garbage, he said segregation would help in this aspect at least.
Earlier, the MMC discussed the garbage issue at length and decided to have segregated waste collection in all wards instead of only Ward No 8 to 12 as was mentioned in the agenda.
It was also decided to remove the transfer stations and instead have a receptacle at Arlem and Mungul initially and other places subsequently. This led to heated discussion with councillors protesting that they were not even consulted on this proposal.
