There is garbage everywhere but there’s hardly anyone who bothers to clear it. Everyone is happy as long as it is not in their surroundings or properties.
There has been a lot of garbage dumped just 100 metres after the Moira bridge on the road to Mapusa. This area comes under the Bastora Panchayat but the road also leads to Moira, Nachinola, Aldona, Bicholim and Poira. For the past year garbage has been accumulating here. Although it had been cleaned on two earlier occasions, the menace only seemed to be getting worse.
A single post on Facebook helped solve this. Seeing the pictures uploaded on the pages of a resident from Moira, the villagers, especially the youth, felt that some action needed to be taken. The youth of Moira, along with few other men, gathered on February 1, at the Moira Club after which they proceeded towards the bridge. This group consisted of about 15 to 20 people from Moira whose aim was to clean the garbage along the road not concerned whether the area fell under Moira or Bastora Panchayat jurisdiction.
They finished the cleaning at around 3:00 pm after which they sought the help of the local MLA who got them permission to dump this garbage at the place where the municipality dumps its garbage near housing board on the way to Siolim.
“Although this area does not come under our Panchayat we made it a point to collectively clean it. This is not a garbage dumping site and when one person dumps garbage others also tend to throw their waste at the same place. Passersby should not dump garbage here,” Moira resident Sidhesh Kesarkar said.
Amarnath Panjikar, a resident of Aldona, said, “We cannot blame others for the mess created here. I used to pass by this road and used to feel bad. Somebody took the initiative to post this issue on Facebook and after seeing that post I decided to come to help them clean. I felt that it was my duty and responsibility to help clean and keep the area clean.”
“People think that this place after the bridge is a garbage dumping area. Now we have cleaned this place and expect people to wake up and stop dumping garbage here,” said Rohidas Shirodkar, a resident of Moira.
It’s never too late, so Goans please wake up and help save Goa from the menace of garbage.
