Some residents of Margao have begun questioning the dry waste management plan by the Margao Municipal Council, starting from November 1, 2017 when the labourers will begin collecting only segregated waste from the households.
Currently the labourers collect all types of waste without being segregated and even the segregated waste is dumped in the big bins making it quite frustrating for conscious citizens who were segregating the waste at home.
“When we were told that the municipality will collect waste from households, we used to segregate the waste and give it to them,” recalled Jose Maria Miranda who pointed out that the segregated waste collection was done by the workers employed by the self-help groups for a short period and then the morass set it.
Currently, the waste collected is manually separated at Sonsoddo into dry and wet waste and plastic is further separated from the dry waste and all this is done with the help of a separator.
On an average 50 to 60 tonnes of waste is generated in Margao that is brought to Sonsoddo. The plastic waste manually separated is then baled and sent to the cement factories in Karnataka through the Goa State Pollution Control Board that sends its own vehicle to collect the bales.
Minimum four bales are prepared every year with each bale weighing 150 to 170 kgs, revealed Sanjay Sanguemkar from MMC’s sanitation department.
“However, a circular has been issued to all concerned that from November 1, only segregated waste will be collected,” revealed Sanjay. In fact MMC has employed around 45 labourers to collect the segregated waste in Fatorda area of the council jurisdiction where segregated waste collection has already commenced.
The MMC is also in the process of appointing a contractor to take up the door to door waste collection and the matter is presently pending with the Directorate of Municipal Administration that is supposed to decide on which of the two parties that have bid should get the contract.
