When an Audit team descended at Sonsodo on Tuesday, they were welcomed inside the waste management shed which was choked with day-to-day waste, with no treatment worth its name taking place inside and no generation of compost.
The visit by the Audit team assumes significance since it is believed in civic circles that Sonsodo has been bleeding Margao Municipal Council in recent times, with huge money spent on the waste management system, but with no proportional benefits for the civic body.
While the auditors found work on the remediation of the Sonsodo legacy dump at the site, they appeared dejected over the state of affairs plaguing the waste management shed.
The team also visited the lone bio-methanation plant in operation at the SGPDA retail market and later headed to the Nessai Industrial Estate, where the civic body has roped in a private agency to handle the dry waste.
Sources in the know pointed out that the brief before the team of auditors was simple – to ascertain the status of the waste management system put in place by the civic body with tax payer’s money, whether the system is in operation and whether the funds spent on the project has benefitted the civic body in terms of revenue.
Senior municipal officials also accompanied the audit team to Sonsodo and replied to the queries raised vis-à-vis waste management.
As the Audit team found a mound of waste inside the Sonsodo shed, civic officials explained that projects proposed by the civic body to the government to rope in a contractor to take up the waste treatment plant pending the setting up of two bio-methanation plants is pending with the government. Civic officials further pointed out that estimates prepared by the municipality and the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) to refurbish the waste management shed, repair the approach road and rope in a contractor to treat the daily waste have been pending with the government for the last couple of months.
“Yes, it is a fact that there’s no treatment worth its name at Sonsodo. It is also a fact that the civic body is only dumping waste inside the shed for the last several months. But, it is also a fact that estimates prepared by the civic body to take up waste treatment and refurbish the shed and repair the road are all pending for want of government’s administrative approval,” an MMC official told The Goan.
He pointed out that the municipal team conveyed this status to the Audit team, including the fact that estimates amounting to Rs 25 lakh prepared by the civic body to take up the work of repairs for the waste management shed have not received approval.
Sonsodo has been bleeding the Margao Municipal Council in recent times with the civic body incurring huge expenses on maintenance, including JCB machines, which are deployed to push the daily waste inside the plant to make way for fresh daily waste.
The Audit team later visited the SGPDA to inspect the lone bio-methanation plant set up by the civic body through a private company. During the inspection of the plant, it was revealed that the unit has not received an adequate quantity of wet waste for treatment.
