MARGAO: Goa State Pollution Control Board Chairman, Jose Manuel Noronha said that once all permissions, machinery and infrastructure is in place, it will take the government four to six months time to segregate the existing garbage dump at Sonsoddo.
Emphasizing that by avoiding the capping of the garbage dump, 16,000 square meters of land will get saved and moreover the segregation solution would save costs as its cheaper compared to the capping solution.
Speaking to Herald about the next course of action, Noronha stated that the work would begin post the monsoon season provided all tender procedures are completed and they have got the required machinery.
Noronha explained that there are estimated 60 metric tonnes of waste at the garbage dump. He said that the state of the art machinery would have trommels and sieves which would be used to segregate the waste.
Noronha stressed that the procedure was safe as it was being done through the machine and that the segregated waste would see the seperation of plastic, inert and compost waste.
He said a baling station would be installed for the plastic waste which would then be sent to Karnataka and that the GSPCB is already disposing off plastic waste from the state in this manner.
He added that the compost waste will be analysed by the board and any compost found having heavy metal content such as lead would be sent to the secured sanitised landfill site.
He further elaborated that in case of heavy metal, arsenic, mercury and chromium, these four type of metals found higher than permissible limits, this compost obtained would be sent to the secured sanitised landfill site.
When pointed out that the landfill site is needed for the optimal functioning of the solid waste management plant to dump rejects from the daily garbage collected from Margao and Fatorda, Noronha said only a small quantitiy would be sent and that the use of the landfill site should be minimal.
Noronha further played down the notion that the entire garbage dump contains hazardous waste and said that less than 20 percent of the existing dump post segregation should be sent to the landfill site. He added that there could be a scenario where nothing may go to landfill site as compost and only after the quality analysis of the composts would the government be able to truly ascertain the contents of the dump.
Regarding the inert garbage, he said it would be taken to any existing dump and that there were plenty of such options available to the government and that even an old quarry could be used for the same if found feasible.
He further added that the government who also have plans to construct garbage treatment plants that would handle 200 tonnes of garbage a day have the know how to manage the garbage dump at Sonsodo.
Noronha added that the garbage treatment plant would provide the technical expertise and guidance to the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) who will be the agency that will process the garbage at Sonsodo.
Furthermore, on Wednesday evening, the pollution control board is having a meeting with the company based in Raichur, Karnataka that have several dumpyards where the segregation and treatment of such garbage dumps have been successful and tried and tested.
Incidentally , a member of the high powered coordination committee (HPCC) Vijai Sardesai said no extra land outside Sonsoddo would be required and that there was a proposal to use certain portions of the waste following the necessary tests for social foresting.
