MAPUSA: The black spots have been giving sleepless nights to Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) as several roadside waste dumps have reappeared with vengeance.
While the civic body has been doing a fairly good job with the collection of the door-to-door garbage in town, tackling black spots has turned into a huge embarrassment to the council.
In spite of MMC’s door-to-door garbage collection service, Mapusa residents continue to dump waste in the open. People from surrounding villages also dump their waste at various black spots adding to the problem further.
While the civic authorities have failed to discourage people from dumping waste in the open the issue appears to be getting out of hand.
Residents carelessly dump all kinds of waste
“People continue to dump all kinds waste which gives foul smell. It’s difficult to walk past this stretch without covering your nose with a handkerchief. The stench is so bad,” said Mira Vaibha, residing in an apartment in Angod, Mapusa.
She was referring to the spot near the old Asilo which is a perennial open dumping site.
Heaps of waste was found dumped at several spots on a daily basis. Such spots were noticed at Khorlim, Peddem, Duler, Angod etc.
The civic body manages to clear the waste but they re-appear immediately after the garbage is lifted. “The issue has been discussed during the civic meetings. It is quite disgusting to see the black spots all over the town. It clearly shows that the civic authorities have miserably failed to fix the issue,” said Servullo Fernandes of Duler.
A councillor from the ruling group admitted that the civic body has failed to find a way out to tackle the black spots.
Black spots blot Mapusa
“A number of black spots have reappeared in different areas of Mapusa. Garden waste dumped in the open places is not collected for days together, sometimes even for months. It reflects on the service provided by the civic body. We have hiked taxes on several services provided by the council. Recently, house tax has also been hiked but sad to say the service provided is very poor,” the councillor said, requesting anonymity.
Another city-father said that the current council is not serious in tackling people’s problem and was taking things casually.
Mapusa MLA Joshua D’Souza said that the civic body was in the process of taking the Cunchelim garbage treatment plant on full time basis to tackle the waste issue in town.
“Additional machinery and man power will be delployed at the plant. That will be a big step for garbage management in the city,” D’Souza said.
