The Margao municipality faced its worst garbage crisis on Wednesday after trucks laden with garbage were stranded at the Sonsodo throughout the day as the garbage management shed reached a point of saturation with no space left inside to accept fresh waste.
It is feared in municipal circles that the commercial capital may start stinking from Thursday with the garbage collecting vehicles stranded at Sonsodo, throwing up questions about how the civic body will collect the waste from Thursday with the fleet of vehicles laden with waste for want of unloading facility.
As if the flow of leachate from the waste treatment plant shed was not enough, Wednesday saw the trucks parked outside the Sonsodo shed, waiting for the green signal from the higher-ups to unload the fresh waste inside the shed.
Sources pointed out that the municipal officials sent an SOS to the JCB machinery owner to deploy the machine at the shed to push back the piled-up garbage further inside to make room for the fresh waste. The machinery, however, did not make its presence felt at the shed, with sources attributing the delay on the part of the civic body to resolve payment issues of the contractor.
With fears being raised that the garbage crisis may hit the waste collection in the city from Thursday for want of vehicles, sources said the senior officials have issued instructions to ensure the JCB machine makes its presence felt at the Sonsodo shed early Thursday morning so that the piled up waste is pushed inside to facilitate the stranded vehicles to unload the waste.
An official told The Goan that if the JCB machinery descends at Sonsodo early morning, the garbage trucks would be in a position to unload the waste before they go back to the waste collecting spots for collection of the daily garbage. “If everything goes well as per the plan, garbage collection by the vehicles should hopefully start by Thursday noon,” an official informed.
That the situation at Sonsodo is turning worse for want of space to dump fresh waste inside the plant became evident on Tuesday when a couple of trucks unloaded the daily waste outside the shed since the vehicles could not enter the plant.
Questions are being raised in the corridors of the civic body how come the authorities did not take quick measures by roping in the JCB contractor to push back the piled-up waste inside the shed?
This is not the first time that the municipal garbage trucks could not unload the waste for want of space inside the Sonsodo waste management shed. In the past too, the garbage-laden vehicles were made to park at the old market garage with the waste or at Sosnodo for want of an unloading facility inside the plant.
This story was taken from The Goan
