The Margao Municipal Council had confidently promised scientific treatment of garbage and removal of the Sonsoddo dump. However, a closer look at the reality discloses that neither the Council nor the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) or Pollution Control Board has succeeded even to handle the garbage of the Margao town in a scientific manner.
The results are evident now; 70% of the waste collected is being thrown back into the Sonsoddo dump and rest is being treated for nothing.
But the situation is not going to improve any soon as the MMC has not only failed to convince people to give segregated waste but has also has failed even to collect it at source. The MMC, in a bid to set the ball rolling, had in 2016 devised a plan and begun working on a segregated waste collection wherein the labourers had to collect household dry waste separately, store it and transport the same separately. The plan has been a success in certain areas and has enabled the MMC to ascertain the quantum of dry waste collected in a day or weekly. Sadly, even after having a full-fledged plant at Sonsoddo to take waste, several labourers of MMC have now been employed at the plant to take care of this dry waste and lakhs of rupees are being spent on them with no income for the MMC.
The Chairperson of the MMC had earlier said that they needed data of the area to enable them the complete segregated waste collection and also to create awareness for which the council had successfully distributed pamphlets giving people waste segregation tips.
The DMA had given thousands of colour coded bins to every household which were distributed to the people through the MMC. It has been over two years now and these dustbins have either gone to people’s bathrooms or have been scrapped; 100 bins were distributed in all the MMC wards @ of 4 each. Two trucks were bought by the MMC specially for the picking of the dry garbage. Later 7 mini tipper trucks were given to the MMC to pick garbage.
After all this the MMC still is craving for infrastructure. Savio Coutinho, former chairperson, said “Exactly one year ago on March 1, two trucks were inaugurated that were supposed to be used exclusively for collection of segregated waste. Thereafter in June 2016 an additional fleet of 7 rickshaws were allotted for waste management. Why has the segregated waste collection not taken off till date? Wasn’t the funds spent on printing of literature, etc, a total waste?”
Highly placed sources have said that no garbage is being treated at the plant but is only being non-scientifically segregated. Even the bailing of the dry waste is being done by MMC by paying lakhs in salaries to the employees.
The Chief Officer of MMC Yashwant Tawde agreed that MMC failed to collect segregated waste from the houses.
The MMC at present has been caught up in a situation without an exit. The entire garbage issue needs a relook and until that time the MMC can only wait and watch.
