ASMITA POLJI
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MAPUSA: Garbage management has turned out to be a key task for the Mapusa municipal since even after clearing the garbage on a daily basis. Garbage can still be seen dumped, littering all over Mapusa, especially on the main junction of the town.
Mapusa being the taluka headquarter of Bardez, people from Bardez and from surrounding talukas such as Pernem, Bicholim are regular visitors to Mapusa for administrative, shopping and other purposes; Even tourists make it a point to check out Friday market.
Mapusa Municipal Council (MNC) collects around 35 tonnes of garbage on a daily basis. It has distributed over 36,000 dustbins having capacity of 5kg to each household to collect wet and dry waste separately. They have three teams of workers which regularly collect the door-to-door garbage and there is a separate group of workers to collect the garbage dumped in public dustbins.
Daily one open truck, three closed trucks, four rickshaws and one big truck collects all the garbage from Mapusa, which is then disposed of at the Assagao garbage zone where it gets segregated at the plant.
MMC has outsourced garbage collection in few wards while others are taken care of by the municipal daily wage workers. There are three teams of 17 workers, a supervisor, and a driver each.
MMC has recently outsourced garbage collection in Ward I, II, III, IV, V and VI while garbage from other wards is collected by the municipal staff on scheduled time every day.
Recently the Garbage Management Minister Michael Lobo had promised to take 5 tonnes of wet garbage from Mapusa, however the MMC is yet to receive any written communication on the same.
Around 15 tonnes of door to door garbage is collected everyday while around 7 tons of garbage is collected from the municipal market.
“These days in our ward at least the door to door collection service is smooth and is carried out once during afternoon hours but the scattered garbage mess can still be seen at various corners in the town, which is the worst. Recent announcement by the minister of waste management of lifting max load from Mapusa town but locals are waiting for their own municipal treatment plant to commence soon so that it will help out in reducing the mess that is seen continuously at various corners,” said Sudesh Tivrekar a Mapusa local.
There are currently five major areas that are Sim Khorlim, Mapusa Tar, Near Administrative complex, Khorlim to Canca bypass, near DMC college road, Canca Bandh Mapusa bus stand entry gate, opposite old Asilo building and housing board Siolim road, where most of the accumulated garbage can be seen. These spots are dark spots of the Mapusa city which are also the boundaries of Mapusa town with the neighboring villages such as Bastora, Canca, Siolim, Assagao and Colvale. Sources revealed that almost 25 per cent of garbage is lifted from Sim Khorlim alone.
Meanwhile the Mapusa municipal chairperson Shubhangi Vaignakar claimed that the garbage seen littered in the city does not belong to Mhapsekars but is dumped by people from neighboring villages.
“Out of 35 tonnes only some amount of garbage belongs to Mhapsekars. All the remaining garbage is from the neighboring villages that dump the garbage in the jurisdiction of Mapusa town. If panchayat takes its own responsibility then garbage will not be an issue in Mapusa,” Vaigankar said.
Vaigankar also said that apart from neighboring villages, garbage is also dumped by people staying on rent and by the daily wage workers. “People who stay in rented rooms and houses and the daily wage workers dump their garbage in public areas. Locals pay tax due to which they are aware of their duties. They make sure they give their garbage to garbage collectors”, Vaignakar said.
