Team Herald
MARGAO: Taking note of the news report published by O Heraldo on Sewerage Treatment Plants (STPs) in Margao not stopped accepting raw sewage from the public toilets carried by private tankers, the Sewerage and Infrastructural Development Corporation of Goa Limited (SIDCGL) has allowed limited number of trips from the private tankers carrying raw sewage to the STPs.
Following this development, several owners of the private sewage tankers have thanked the O Heraldo
and the SIDCGL for taking
serious cognisance of their grievances.
It is pertinent to note that STPs located in Shirvodem, Navelim had stopped accepting raw sewage from the private tankers carrying raw sewage from public toilets since March, thus putting the tanker operators in Salcete taluka in a fix over disposal of this sewage.
The residents had expressed fear that incidents pertaining to releasing raw sewage into the open fields or in the nullahs would increase as the owners of sewage tankers were left with no other option regarding disposal of raw sewage from public and private toilets, until the ongoing works of the sewage network was completed and became operational.
Speaking to O Heraldo, Vivek Kudchadkar, engineer at Navelim STP, informed that the facility has started accepting the raw sewage from the sewage tankers, but has restricted the number of trips.
“As per the directions issued by the department (SIDCGL), we are only accepting 10 trips of raw sewage from the sewage tankers in the STP located at Sirvodem-Navelim,” Kudchadkar said.
He further said that the STPs will allow more trips if directions are issued by the higher authorities.
On the other hand, one of the owners of the sewage tankers said that they continue to face hardships regarding disposal of the raw sewage collected from the public and private toilets.
“This issue can be resolved fully if the department shows readiness to accept more numbers of trips of raw sewage into the STPs for further treatment. It is not only a loss to the owners of sewage tankers, but can
result in health hazard, if
raw sewage is discharged into the open fields in
absence of STPs, accepting it” he claimed.
Recently, several incidents were reported in the Salcete taluka pertaining to raw sewage from septic tanks and wastewater from the bio-methanation plant being released into open fields, besides private sewage tanker was caught by the public while discharging the raw sewage in the open area as the STPs had stopped
accepting sewage from
the tankers.
