TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Ragpickers who rummage the Mapusa-Assagao for scrap, have reported minor explosions that take place at the garbage dump with the nearby residents asking how the Mapusa municipality has failed to take note of this nuisance.
Speaking to Herald, residents of Ganeshpuri said that rather than trying to solve the problem scientifically, the municipality is only compounding the problem by dumping more and more unsegregated garbage at the site.
“Has the municipality ever wondered why each year the garbage catches fire in summer each year,” a frustrated resident said.
“I have spoken to the ragpickers of the area, and they tell me they hear explosions with sound of escaping gas,” the resident said.
The circumstances make it obvious that there are pockets of methane and other combustible gases that are trapped inside the garbage heaps.
At this time of the year when the comunidade sets fire to the grass in the cashew plantations and orchards, the sparks and cinders obviously reach the site and then the whole garbage heap catches fire.
“The solution lies in opening up the garbage. But the municipality does not seem to understand that. They are only heaping more and more garbage onto the site only compounding the problem.
The road that is traversed by several tourists who either have made Siolim their home or who travel to explore the Northern Coastal belt including Morjim, Ashwem, etc from Mapusa, the garbage site is a huge eye sore.
The Mapusa Municipal Council’s complete callousness in trying to deal with the issue in an adhoc manner has been condemned by the area residents.
“They are trying to douse it by calling the fire brigade or by trying to play down the issue saying that it is not as big as one assumes it to be. They also say that they are not responsible for the fires,” angry residents have said.
Flaying the councilors residents asked, “If they cannot take responsibility for their own town and its garbage, then why did they contest elections?”
