Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) is facing a staff shortage in tackling the ever-increasing garbage menace in the town. The town has been plagued with the problem of garbage and the municipality has been caught on the back foot in disposing the waste.
If one visits the town one can bear witness to garbage disposed at some places which have turned into perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes and food courts for stray animals.
Sources informed that one of the reasons for the mess in the town is the fact that the MMC is facing a staff crunch to collect and dispose garbage.
Mapusa municipality has hired on a temporary basis around 150 daily wage workers for collecting and disposing the garbage. Of these 150 workers, 80 are engaged in door-to-door collection and 65 are posted at Assagao treatment plant for segregating the waste.
Presently, the Council has distributed 36,000 bins to households for collecting wet and dry garbage. These 80 workers go door-to-door to collect the household garbage. Around 15 truckloads of garbage get disposed at the Assagao treatment plant. The municipality has 9 rickshaws and 3 compactors.
Sources further informed that another reason for improper disposal of garbage is that these workers who are hired on a temporary basis have not been following any rule and regulation laid by the municipality with regards to waste collection, its segregation and disposal. To add to the municipality’s woes, at times these workers too remain absent for days and on these days, the garbage remains littered on the streets.
Sources say the only solution to tackle the garbage problem is to hire these daily wage workers on permanent basis. A committee has been formed, which will now scrutinise the list of the daily wage workers and their work and on this basis it will be decided whether to hire them on a permanent basis.
Source informed that Mapusa municipality spends around Rs 70 lakh per month on the salaries of these 150 daily wage workers.
Another reason for the ever-increasing garbage in Mapusa is that the municipality is overburdened with the extra garbage created by the neighbouring villages such as Canca, Parra, Assagao, Bastora, Anjuna and others.
Mapusa Municipal Council comprises of 20 wards, which produce around 25 tonnes of garbage daily that is 15 tonnes from the market and the remaining 10 tonnes from the town.
Sources further informed that people from neighbouring villages dump their garbage in Mapusa municipality jurisdiction, which include Khorlim, Canca bypass and Mapusa bus stand entry gate.
When contacted, MMC Chairperson Rohan Kavlekar said, “Lack of awareness is one of the reasons garbage has turned into such a major problem. People lack knowledge on how to dispose or segregate garbage. If people start segregating garbage in a proper manner then 50 percent of the garbage issue is solved.”
“We have already started awareness programmes and have held meetings with housing societies which comprise of 100 and more flats and these societies have already started waste segregation in their premises. Soon we will hold awareness programmes with students of scouts and guides. We are also including Self Help Groups in awareness programmes and sessions so that they can create further awareness among all households,” Kavlekar added.
