Goa: Three years later, Margao municipality still struggling to tackle city waste

As garbage-laden trucks head to Saligao with the Sonsodo waste, the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) and the powers that be controlling the civic body may have to answer a simple question – what has the civic body done to treat the daily wet waste generated in the commercial since Fomento handed over the plant and machinery to the civic body in 2020?

It’s a sheer coincidence that the MMC is still struggling to handle the city waste even after three years when Fomento Green handed over the waste treatment facility in public interest to the civic body on February 20, 2020.

Consider this: On February 20, 2020, MMC officials led by then Chief Officer Ajit Panchwadkar took over the Sonsodo plant and machinery from Fomento representatives in the civic body, with a promise to tide over the situation at Sonsodo.

On the very same day, then Chief Secretary Parimal Rai, Director of Municipal Administration Dr Tariq Thomas, South Goa district Collector Ajit Roy, Goa Waste Management Corporation Managing Director, Levinson Martins, besides officials of the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) and MMC Chief Officer Ajit Panchwadkar had descended at Sonsodo to gather first-hand information on the situation at Sonsodo.

Reason? Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was to chair a meeting of the High Powered Coordination Committee (HPCC) the next day on February 21 to chalk out the future course of action at Sonsodo.

Since the last three years, Sonsodo has played host to similar visits by ministers, MLAs and senior officials handling waste management, dishing out promises to resolve the waste imbroglio. Sadly, the MMC has miserably failed to treat even a kilogram of the over 40 tonnes of daily wet waste generated in the commercial capital in the last three years.

Consider this. During the last three years, the Sonsodo waste management shed had saturated with waste for want of treatment worth its name. Twice, the piled-up waste has been carted out of the shed in the last three years to make space for fresh waste. The shed has played host to fires and smoke in the last three years due to the generation of methane gas inside for want of waste treatment.

The ground reality shows the civic body has only deployed JCB machinery to push the daily wet waste inside to make space for fresh garbage, so much so, the walls of the imposing Sonsodo waste management shed crumbled twice last year due to the accumulated waste.