Bio-methanation plant operations at SGPDA market come to a halt

MARGAO
In an interesting development, functioning of Margao’s lone 5TPD bio-methanation plant set up at the SGPDA market has come to a stop, but for a different reason – disposal of the slurry generated by the plant.

A visit to the site on Saturday has revealed that operation of the plant has come to a stop. A worker at the plant informed us that the bio-methanation plant has not been in operation for close to a month now. Resultantly, the Municipality has stopped supplying the segregated door-to-door waste and hotel waste to the plant and the waste is sent directly to the Sonsodo plant for disposal.

Inquiries by The Goan has revealed that the plant has been shut for close to a month now over the disposal of the manure type slurry generated by the plant. Plans were afoot by the contractor to transport the slurry to the Margao sewerage treatment plant for disposal. The sewerage, however, has till date not accepted the slurry insisting on completion of the required formalities.

When The Goan contacted Chief Officer Rohit Kadam to shed light on the bio-methanation plant, he was quick to point out that the plant has not been in operation for over 20 days now for want of facility for the disposal of the manure type slurry. “I had inspected the plant to get a firsthand experience of the situation. It has been pointed out that the contractor had approached the PWD, Sewerage for the disposal of the slurry. Even the prescribed fees were to be paid by the contractor to the Sewerage department,” Kadam said, adding that things should be sorted out by next week.

He added: “There is no problem with the functioning of the plant. The problem lies with the disposal of the manure type slurry generated by the plant during the process. We should overcome the situation by next week.”

The Chief Officer said since the slurry is a rich manure and can be used for gardening purposes, he had proposed that it should be used in the gardens if it is not polluting.

Questions, however, are being raised why the need for disposal of the slurry has arisen and whether the issue has come up because of the factors prevailing at the site or the issues were not factored at the time of setting up of the plant.

Meanwhile, the Chief Officer pointed out that he will discuss with the Power officials on the question of selling the power generated by the bio-methanation into the grid. “The plant has generated power, which is presently being used to run the operation. We want to sell the power to the grid as early as possible so that the MMC benefits by the power generation capacity of the plant,” he added.

The MMC had tendered as many as three 5TPD bio-methanation plants in 2020, of which one has been set up last year and the fate of the remaining two plants depends on the functioning of the existing one. Questions, however, are raised in certain quarters whether there’s a need to set up the remaining two plants when the Goa Waste Management Corporation has been entrusted with the job to set up two 25TPD bio-digesters at Sonsodo.