Goa is synonymous with images of golden beaches, buzzing nightlife, lovely churches, distinctive houses and friendly people. No wonder this small state is one of India’s biggest and busiest tourist destinations. This state attracts over 8 million tourists every year.
However, this huge floating population and the local residents combined, spew tonnes of waste every day, a large chunk of which is non-degradable, mostly plastic materials.
In fact, on the occasion of World Ocean Day, Herald TV had telecast a special panel discussion with ocean experts, where they cited how the huge amount of plastic has accumulated in the ocean and on Goa’s shores and how it threatens the ecology and human health by entering our food chain.
Aware of the challenge at hand, the Government of Goa has announced many projects in the last few years to create a circular economy that can sustain itself without damaging the serene beauty of the State. The administration has also set up Solid Waste Management (SWM) facilities in North and South Goa. The State has banned single use-plastic and aims to be plastic free soon. Committed to eradicating plastic waste from its shores, the government is involving stakeholders like gram panchayats, market association and tourism industry to educate the people of Goa to avoid the use of plastic.
Government has constituted Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) to deal with all garbage related issues including legacy dump sites in the State. GWMC has taken over all the ongoing SWM Projects in Goa including SWM Facilities at various locations, biomedical waste management facility, hazardous waste management facility and e-waste facility. But have these measures managed to control the plastic waste and overall garbage menace in the State?
Dr Levinson Martins, Managing Director Goa Waste Management Corporation, said, “In 2011, Government set up a committee named as Monitoring Committee-cum-Working Committee on Solid Waste Management. It also worked on baling and sending it to the cement factory. This is how till 2012, we gathered 100 tonne waste. When I joined the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) in 2012, the government formed a task force because the waste management issue was rising day by day.”
“Then the then CM was chairman of the committee and I was the Member Secretary. Also many learn it. People were part of this committee. Clinton Vaz was one of them. Then onwards, we started working thoroughly to get rid of waste. We started collecting waste along the major district roads. Also we set up three baling stations at
Bicholim, Margao and Kakoda,”
Dr Martins said.
“It made it much easier as before we could only send 3.5 tonne waste in a truck at a time, where after baling we could send 12 to 15 tonnes and also saved money. Then we set up a 100 tonne waste management plant at Saligao and the other one was at Kakoda, which got delayed. This is how we started working on it. Now the Saligao plant has been upgraded from 100 to 250 tonnes,” he said.
And the South Goa’s plant at Kakoda is all set for the inauguration. Meanwhile, the common bio-medical waste facility has also been set up at Kundaim, where all the medical waste will be treated. Almost 1200 health care facilities are linked to it.
“There are about 300 industrial units which generate hazardous waste, which has also been taken care of. The E-waste management work is underway. And the construction debris is being managed. In 2011 we started with 100 tonnes, but as of
today we have sent almost 2 lakh tonnes of waste to cement factories in Karnataka,”
Dr Martins said.
When asked about the challenges faced regarding waste management at village level, Sankalp Mahale, Sarpanch Chicolna Bogmalo, said, “Before 2019, in our village we use to collect just the dry waste. But when I got elected in 2017, I studied regarding this and in 2019 we set up a garbage treatment centre in my ward. People generally don’t like such projects in their backyards. But I am grateful that I got full support from the people in my ward and also the local MLA Mauvin Godinho, who is Panchayat Minister as well.”
The Garbage treatment Centre is just 100 meters away from the residential colony, and is considered one of the best operating systems.
“Under Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin Phase 2, we have received good machineries, government facilities. As we are a lower income Panchayat, we were initially reluctant about setting up this centre. But the Government helped us to set up this shed under Swachh Bharat Mission, gave us required machinery, got E-rickshaws, under CSR we got some vehicles from Goa Shipyard Limited. Now we have started door-to-door waste collection, and for the last five years, we have been handling this issue particularly. The designated contractor, all the panch members are also sincerely working towards it,” Mahale said.
Speaking on the changing trend of garbage generation, Clinton Vaz, Garbage Management Consultant, said that every year there is something new in garbage generation.
“During the Covid time, we thought we might witness less waste, as schools offices etc were closed. But to our surprise the amount of waste generated didn’t reduce, it was the same. Rather we started getting more waste like Swiggy, Zomato packets. Change in people’s habits increased the consumption of food ordered from outside, resulting in more waste. We also thought that after Covid this shall come to normal but it didn’t happen. The waste has increased due to an increase in the packaging of food.”
Though the Covid phase has passed, people still have not reduced ordering food. The waste is increasing day by day, but the sad part is that non recyclable waste is found more these days.
“Despite ban on single-use plastic, we find its usage even now. You will see single use plastic everywhere. Grocery shops, hotels and shopping marts mostly use single-use plastic which cannot be recycled easily. And because of this we find it hard to recycle the plastic,” Vaz said.
Sharing his experience regarding making fertilizers and energies through this waste, Abhinav Apte, Founder ComePostVille, said, “In my opinion, everyone should take up composting. Composting is very easy, many people buy things which are required for composting but fail at it due to lack of guidance. To overcome this we have started a composting community where the members share their experience of making compost, which helps and gives a boost to others, to take up composting.”
ComePostVille is a community initiative where fellow citizens exchange ideas, knowledge and experiences to empower and encourage each other and become a better and stronger part of the community.
“When you take up composting, you automatically start segregating dry and wet waste. We have almost reached a number of 2000 in this community. If we reach 5000, we can definitely manage to get rid of wet waste by composting it at home. And if we start a movement to build communities in our neighbourhood, villages, or the residential colonies, we will be able to treat our own waste. These communities, other than making compost, have also taken up clean up drives, plantation activities independently and also with the assistance of Government bodies. If such a positive minded community comes together we can definitely start a movement to overcome the waste management issue,” Apte said.
When asked about the role of education in garbage management, Sujeetkumar Dongre, Scientist, Centre for Environment Education (CEE), said that he works in the field of environmental education.
“For me, fundamentally the objective of environmental education is to build the capacity of humans. The person should be in a position to recognize what is right and what is wrong. Essentially education is leading a change in human behaviour, in the habits of the people. It is also changing the outlook of humanity. So, essentially education is playing a very important role to bring in the change,” Dongre said.
“Right from the beginning when I came to the State of Goa, in 2000, CEE has been emphasizing the use of education in bringing change among the society. We initiated a lot of programmes in schools. Later, we also worked with the State Government’s Department of Science, Technology and Environment along with GWMC,” he said.
“What we also have realized is that environmental education now has become a compulsory subject. How do we teach environmental education? We have to have a different approach to teaching this subject. Waste management is a human element. We are managing the waste right from the beginning. And we continuously managed it. We did not find any issue. 30 years down the line if you see there was absolutely no issue of waste. But today we are facing the problem of waste simply because the component of the waste has been changed,” Dongre said.
“Earlier we used to have organic waste and we could dispose of it anywhere. There was absolutely no issue as it was biodegradable. It used to mix into the environment, compost used to happen on its own. But introduction of plastic material has resulted in generation of non-biodegradable waste. It is actually creating a problem. So how do we understand the impact of these materials, which we have introduced in our system? And how we manage that is something that is challenging. Education brings perspective in that,” he said.
According to the CSE scientist, education helps you to understand what the material is, how it is actually helping, whether it is helping? And how do we actually dispose of that material is what we have to work towards bringing awareness among the people.
“Now when you talk about waste management, management is a very social subject actually. Management is a subject which also deals with human behaviour. There are three types of issues. We have simple issues, complicated, and then complex issues. The complex one is actually human related. Any issue which is complex, and where humans are involved in it, solving that particular problem requires understanding, and education brings that understanding to solve that particular problem,” Dongre said.
“So we, along with the GWMC, have created a specific curriculum. We wanted to introduce it in school education, and we almost trained 400 teachers across the State and they are taking this issue into the schools, and of course education is a long term process. Through this process, people will come to know what the others are doing,” he said.
A survey was done on how much waste is produced in the State, upon which we come to know that 760 metric ton of waste is being produced on a daily basis in Goa. Under this waste around 150 metric ton of non-recyclable waste is produced.
National average of daily per head waste generation is 250 g. But for Goa, the figure shoots up to 450 g per head daily. This is because while the State’s own population is 15 lakh, the size of the floating population is around 80 lakh! Due to this, the amount of waste generated is very high in the State. Segregating and treating different types of waste is a big task. How is this managed?
“As I said, a Task Force was deployed to overcome this issue. But soon we realised that we needed an agency for this, due to which, GWMC was formed. We were mandated to make common facilities. There was a dump all around including 191 panchayats and 14 municipalities, including CCP. As there were no proper facilities, then waste collection, segregation, dumping recycling or composting was not happening or if it was happening it was in an open area,” Martins said.
“If this was not happening on a daily basis, then we had to dump the waste, which turned into a Sonsoddo dump. Likewise, 11 dumps were formed in the entire State. We almost tried to get rid of all the dumps, including four major dumps in Panjim city itself. As there is no cement factory in the State, we have to be dependent on Karnataka for disposing of construction debris,” he said.
“As there were a lot of hardships seen in all the panchayats, the government came with a business amendment and put waste management under the Science and Technology department. Government cannot set up a separate plant in each panchayat. Due to which, a lot of South Goa waste is being taken to Saligao plant. The Corporation started collecting the waste along highways and major district roads, as the panchayat and municipalities were not having any major facility. For this, the people started dumping all the household waste along a long road side, which has to be dealt with by local authorities,” he said.
Some people might say that we pay house tax and it is fully the responsibility of panchayats to deal with waste. How does one tackle such issues?
“We get to hear a lot of such things, but the need of the hour is to educate people on waste management. I would say that we are almost successful in educating 10% of the people. Bogmalo beach is a tourist attraction which comes under our Panchayat. It is a tourist attraction location which sees a lot of waste thrown around by the tourists and also by the locals. If we keep dustbins, people put everything dry and wet together, and segregation becomes a problem. So, we try to collect the waste on a daily basis,” Martins said.
“We have also come up with a facility where people can contact us on our phone number, where we collect the waste thrown in the vicinity, within 24 hours. The dry waste is managed by GWMC, but we still don’t have a solution for treating waste like diapers and sanitary napkins. If you see almost 1 ton of waste in our MRF shed is of diapers and sanitary napkins,” he said.
“We have started our Bio-Medical waste treatment plant at Kundaim, all the panchayats are linked with this plant. Furthermore, they should take the initiative of collecting domestic hazardous waste like diapers, sanitary napkins and others separately and send this to the Bio-Medical waste treatment plant. After a panchayat is linked to this plant, it is registered for this purpose. But as nothing comes free, this also has a payment system,” Martins added.
How can one register for this?
“There are almost 1200 health care facilities, 191 panchayats, and 14 municipalities, including the CCP. The local body has to sign an agreement, after which the waste will be collected by the concerned people and the panchayat will have to pay for it. They can pay on a daily basis or even monthly basis. Unlike earlier, now we have a solution for biomedical waste also,” he said.
Elaborating on the practical problems faced during waste management, Vaz said, “Mostly in the villages when our workers try to collect the waste, people still don’t segregate their waste. When people don’t segregate the waste, the system breaks down and the workers get demotivated. Firstly we don’t get workers to collect garbage. So it entirely depends on the panchayats to convince their villagers to segregate their garbage, and this is how they can come up with a solution.”
“Furthermore what I have seen in the state is that different villages have different systems. Some will collect waste on a daily basis, while the others will collect weekly or monthly. So there is no proper system and coordination. The lay person should also know the system and get the required information at a common place,” he said.
According to Dr Martins, the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) came up with a solution. The slaughter waste could be incinerated and GSPCB allowed it to incinerate further. But somebody has to collect it. There has to be a collection mechanism of all these slaughter waste. The principles have to be applicable on everyone. So, every polluter has to pay to treat their garbage.
So, should garbage management education be a compulsory subject?
“That’s exactly what I am saying,” said Dongre, adding, “Five to six years back, we created a curriculum. In order to solve this huge problem, you have to structurally get into the schools to create awareness amongst students. We created this curriculum for the secondary and the higher secondary sections,” Dongre said.
“We also developed a curriculum for D, Ed and B Ed schools. Also we conducted workshops for teachers. So the curriculum is in place. But now the challenge before us is that education is a continuous process. You have to continuously train people to continuously speak to the people and very importantly, we have to take up this issue very seriously because waste management for many of the people, it is a very dry subject but waste at the same time can be a very interesting subject,” he said.
“For example, waste management can be taught in chemistry, in mathematics and in any language. So the teacher has to be also trained in a way that when they are teaching the civic content, they can also bring the behavioural aspect,” he said.
Vaz said that the government is doing a lot of things. The systems need to be put out for the public.
“The people of Goa want to do the right things but they don’t know how to do it. GWMC had taken initiatives before and I think they should do it. Few years back, the Kingfisher beverages company was taking back the empty beer bottles. But now, no company is doing that and we need to start it again,” Vaz said.
Martins added, “We have seen that almost 10% of the waste is clothes. We have started an initiative with the help of an NGO at Vasco and have named it as POTI. Here, people will have to give their used clothes after which they will be given bags. Plastic has to be reduced. We talk about big plastics but nobody talks about micro plastics. This plastic goes to the ocean and furthermore it is consumed by the fish and creates a greater problem.”
According to Dongre, today the plastic is considered an environmental hazard, but in future it will become a major health hazard.
“If you look at the micro plastics, it has gone into the mother’s milk and also in our blood cells. So in future, it will be a huge health disaster. That is why it is very important for us to understand the complexities of the impact that we are creating on the planet, especially with plastic. Now if you look at the oceans, islands of plastics have been created in it. Almost 50 to 60 percent of ocean fauna has already consumed the micro plastic and actually it is coming to us through the food chain. So, it is a very hazardous future ahead of us,” Dongre said.
So, how does one overcome this?
Martins said that people should segregate their dry and kitchen waste and give it to panchayat or the municipality.
“Also give your old clothes to the POTI scheme, which we have devised. Also the panchayats and municipalities have to work to set up transfer stations and maintain them. There is nothing like no solution. We can do it. Be hopeful of it,” he said.
Vaz said that the solution is to reduce the waste. “We will have to avoid plastic packaged things to reduce plastic waste,” he said.
