Only a part of the dump is covered
No chamber constructed to accumulate flowing lachate
Rs 35 to 40 lakh spent on covering Sonsodo waste dumping site since last four years
TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: The monsoon has already set in with the city lashed by heavy rains in the last few days but Margao Municipal Council’s annual exercise to cover the Sonsodo dump yard with tarpaulin remains incomplete till date.
The delay in covering the entire waste dumping site has raised questions over the very purpose of executing the work when the waste is already exposed to heavy rains. This year, work on covering the Sonsodo site will cost the civic body an estimated Rs 8.50 lakh, which includes the cost of procuring the tarpaulin and to cover the dump yard.
A visit to the waste dumping site revealed that some labourers were engaged in the work of covering the waste with tarpaulin. At a number of places, where the tarpaulin has already been laid, gaping holes could be seen, offering enough access for the water to percolate down the waste.
Incidentally, while work on covering the dump yard is underway at a slow pace, there’s no activity spotted at the site to build a chamber to accumulate the lachate flowing from the site into the adjoining drain, leaving the ground water contaminated.
Though the waste dump is being covered every monsoon since the last three years, there’s been no relief from the flow of lechate into the storm water drains. Suggestions mooted in the past that the Civic body should channelize the lechate water into a chamber and release the same into the storm water nullah after treatment, has not been implemented till date.
Funds amounting to Rs 35-40 lakh have been spent on covering the Sonsodo waste dumping site since the last four years even as the Municipal proposal to cap the waste dumping site on the lines of Gorai-Mumbai have so far not found favour with the government.
