Taking cognizance of a Herald exclusive report on the collapse of another retaining wall at the garbage dumping site at Headland Sada, the chairperson of the Mormugao Municipal Council, Lavina D’Souza and Municipal Engineer, Vishnu Naik inspected the site on Wednesday afternoon.
The officials were surprised to notice that around 35 metres of the retaining wall that collapsed a few days back, was facilitating the sliding of garbage down the hill and the situation worsened after the State witnessed heavy rains on Tuesday night.
“I am shocked and disappointed because such serious issues should have been brought to my notice. The reason why officials kept quiet about this is a mystery. I am forwarding a note asking the officials to give me reasons for hiding the information and to conduct an inquiry against those who are involved,” said D’Souza.
According to Naik, some 30 metres of the retaining wall collapsed, due to which garbage started sliding down the hill. He, however, assured that prompt action would be initiated to stop garbage from sliding down the hill.
“We have prepared an estimate of Rs 7.5 lakh for the repairing of the wall and I will request the DMA to release the grant on a priority,” he informed.
Ironically, the municipality has once again started following similar procedures of writing letters and taking approval and thus are not in a position to give concrete assurance as to when the repair work would be completed. With every passing day, the non-segregated garbage waste is sliding down the hill towards the Arabian Sea posing danger to aquatic as well as human life. If repairs aren’t carried out promptly, the monsoon rains will take the garbage with it into the sea.
