With the National Green Tribunal (NGT) issuing a three-month ultimatum to Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) to clear garbage from its treatment plant at Headland Sada, the council and the agency managing the plant have now admitted that the deadline is simply impossible to achieve.
Speaking to Herald, former MMC chairperson and sitting councillor Manish Arolkar said the MMC, during its meeting last week, had deliberated on the NGT ultimatum, failing which MMC would be forced to shut down the plant.
“Most councillors wanted the MMC to direct the agency, which manages the treatment plant at Headland Sada, to ensure that they will comply with the NGT order, failing which their contract would be terminated,” said Arolkar.
“MMC cannot directly terminate the contract, as demanded by most councillors. The agreement is for 20 years and if MMC terminates the contract now, it will lead to a legal tangle,” informed Arolkar.
What makes the NGT order particularly worrying for the port town is the fact that the MMC is one of the few councils to have its own garbage dumping site with a garbage treatment plant, which is outsourced to Enviorex India Pvt Ltd, at Headland Sada.
“In 2000, the MMC had leased 28,000 sq mts of land to Enviorex India to segregate garbage and generate manure, which the company had to sell and generate revenue to pay its labourers their wages and the lease amount to the council,” said Arolkar.
According to Raju, an official of Enviorex India at Headland Sada, the company managed to sell the manure to the forest and agriculture departments during the first five years after setting the garbage treatment plant.
“After five years, both government departments stopped purchasing the manure and as a result, we could not generate revenue to maintain the garbage treatment plant and to pay wages of the labourers and the lease to the MMC,” said Raju.
“In the absence of buyers, we could not generate revenue to maintain our machinery and garbage started piling up at the garbage dumping site.”
The huge accumulation of garbage since the past two years compelled the NGT to issue a three-month notice to the MMC.
“Earlier on two occasions, the Goa State Pollution Control Board had also warned the MMC to treat its garbage, failing which the GSPCB had threatened to withdraw its permission to the treatment plant,” said MMC source.
“However, the council failed to initiate action against the agency treating the garbage, for failing to fulfill the terms and conditions in the lease agreement. For the last eight years or so, the MMC allowed the company to use the land without paying the lease amount to the council,” the source added.
“The council is equally responsible for the accumulated garbage and the NGT order. It is next to impossible for the agency to recycle all the garbage within three months,” added the source.
Added Raju: “With only 10 MMC labourers to segregate the garbage it is not possible to clear all the garbage within the three-month period specified by NGT. Each day, we receive 40-50 tonnes of garbage and we can recycle and generate only 20 tons of manure per day. With the present mountain of garbage and given the huge quantity we receive each day, it will take at least two years to clear all the garbage.”
When contacted, MMC Chief Officer Megnath Porob admitted that it would not be possible to live up to expectations of the NGT.
“However, we are doing our level best to recycle as much garbage as possible. The council will start door-to-door garbage shortly and will direct houses to segregate garbage at source. This will ease the pressure of recycling garbage at the treatment site at Headland Sada,” said Porob.
Arolkar added that MMC would approach government agencies like the Horticulture Corporation and Ela Farm to buy the organic manure from MMC at Rs 6 per kg. “With this revenue, the MMC can pay the wages of MMC labourers employed at the garbage treatment plant,” he said.
