CM-chaired panel yet to meet to decide on bio-methanation plant to treat city's waste
The Sonsodo waste management shed has not been used since the waste was carted out for remediation.
Photo Credits: File photo/The Goan
MARGAO
With just a week to go before the filling of the status report in the High Court on July 5 on the Sonsodo imbroglio, the Margao Municipal Council and the Chief Minister-headed High Powered Coordination Committee (HPCC) have come under scanner on the contentious issue of addressing the treatment of waste generated in the commercial capital.
Reason: While disposing of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Citizens of Sonsodo through its secretary Roque Mascarenhas in March last, the High Court had issued a clear direction in respect of the setting up the 15TPD bio-methanation plant at Sonsodo or making the 5TPD bio-methanation plant operational. The High Court had directed the Margao Municipal Council to file a status report/affidavit by July 5, 2024.
It’s over three months since the High Court issued the directions while disposing of the PIL. The HPCC is yet to meet to decide on the contentious issue of setting up a 15TPD bio-methanation plant or to make the 5TPD bio-methanation plant at the SGPDA market complex operational.
When The Goan sought to find out the status of the High Court directions vis-à-vis the waste treatment plants, Margao Municipal officials maintained that Margao Municipal Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar had written to the government to convene the HPCC to take a call on the setting up of the bio-methanation plants.
The MMC official, however, hastened to add that the government is yet to convene a meeting of the HPCC, throwing up the moot question -- how the civic body would go about filing the status report on the issue of setting up the 15TPD bio-methanation plant at Sonsodo.
The Margao municipality is not treating even a tonne of wet waste generated in the commercial capital. The civic body transports the city's wet waste, around 30 tonnes per day, to the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) plant at Cacora for treatment. This throws up a question – whether the government or the civic body is content with transporting the waste generated in the city to Cacora for treatment.
A question is often asked in the corridors of the municipal building and outside -- how the MMC would go about handling the wet waste in the event the Cacora plant stops accepting waste from the commercial capital for technical reasons or otherwise?
In fact, ex-GWMC Managing Director Levinson Martins had cautioned that the Cacora plant is primarily meant for the talukas of Sanguem, Dharbandora, Quepem and Canacona and that the Margao municipality should have an independent waste treatment plant to take care of the city's waste.
MMC officials in private say it is for the HPCC to take a call on the waste treatment plant at Sonsodo. Sources, however, wondered whether there’s seriousness on the part of the agencies to take a decision, more so when the High Court, while disposing of the PIL, had categorically stated that the court expected the HPCC to address the issues as soon as possible and issue necessary directions to the GWMC and the MMC.
The HPCC is yet to meet and the MLAs representing Margao, Fatorda and Curtorim, all members of the Chief Minister-headed panel, have demanded that a meeting be convened to discuss and address the garbage tangle.
HC's Directions to authorities
While disposing of a 2019 PIL petition, the High Court had issued the following directions to the Margao Municipal, the Goa Waste Management Corporation, and the Sewerage and Infrastructural Corporation of Goa.
(i) The MMC will ensure that a new transformer will be installed at the Sonsodo site within three months; (ii) The GWMC must complete the construction of the sanitary landfill at the Sonsodo site within six months; (iii) The GWMC must complete the retaining wall construction along the plot boundary at Sonsodo as expeditiously as possible and, in any case, before 30.06.2024; (iv) The Sewerage and Infrastructural Corporation of Goa (SICG) must complete the work to extend the sewerage line to Sonsodo within six months from today to facilitate the disposal of sewage and treated leachate; (v) The MMC, GMWC, and SICG must file compliance/status affidavits by 05.07.2024.
