The MMC continues its struggle to manage the garbage generated in Mapusa with questions now being raised on the door-to-door collection drive and the funds spent on garbage management.
The Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) has been struggling to solve garbage problem in the city, but when it procures expensive bins to collect garbage, many are either broken or discarded by the roadside.
Many garbage bins are themselves discarded as waste and they have been dumped by the roadside near the Karraswaddo junction at Mapusa and at other places in the city.
That the garbage disposal system in Mapusa has not gone as per plans is evident from the door-to-door garbage drive, which is being questioned by many residents in Mapusa.
“The door-to-door collection drive is not properly regulated, because of poor supervision by the MMC, while garbage collectors don’t turn up for days together. The MMC has promised a green and a black dustbin to every household, but nothing has been done. We even offered to pay for the dustbins, but the MMC is reluctant to purchase their own bins,” remarked Ratnapal Salkar of Mapusa.
What has also added to the woes is that the MMC does not have a garbage disposal site of its own and instead, uses a garbage site on Assagao Comunidade land.
When contacted, MMC Chairman Sandeep Falari admitted that he was unaware that many garbage bins were discarded by the roadside and other parts of Mapusa, thereby not only contributing to a gross waste of funds, but also adding to the waste strewn in the city.
“It is unacceptable and I will get it solved. I will remove the discarded garbage bins,” said Falari.
He informed that there are about 100 garbage bins with wheels in the city. “About 5-8 such dustbins are used to collect the wet and dry waste in each ward, while there are garbage bins for the market as well,” he said.
Responding to strong criticism about the garbage treatment system in Mapusa, the MMC Chairman Sandeep Falari said, “In case of houses, we have a system of door-to-door collection. Our volunteers go house to house and it’s segregated into wet and dry waste.”
When told that wet and dry waste is not always segregated, Falari quickly changed his position saying, “Strictly speaking, I have to admit that dry and wet waste gets mixed to some extent. Waste is not totally segregated and we have not achieved that as yet. The ideal situation will be when we have placed the order for garbage bins to be distributed in houses. There are about 18,000 houses in Mapusa and we would need 36,000 bins for wet and dry waste.”
