The waste that has piled up inside the waste treatment shed at Sonsodo.
The Shadow Council for Margao made a fervent plea to the High Court to strictly monitor the bio-remediation work at Sonsodo, claiming the concerned authorities and the contractor are adopting crude methods of disposing the legacy waste in low lying areas without taking measures to prevent the pollution of the ground water table.
“Sonsodo, the big fat hen that lays golden eggs, is all set to lay more golden eggs for those who feast from it,” stated the SCM convenor Savio Coutinho while describing the MMC’s waste management system.
He pointed out that it’s hardly three months since the Goa Waste Management Corporation, through its blue eyed contractor the Hindustan Waste Treatment Pvt Ltd, cleared 14,380 cubic meters of accumulated waste from the Sonsodo plant.
“The same place in now once again ready with a similar quantity of accumulated waste, waiting to be feasted upon by the people in authority,” lamented Coutinho.
He said since Fomento had handed over the plant to the MMC in February 2020, this will be the third time accumulated waste from inside the plant will be cleared by spending additional funds from the public exchequer.
“In June 2020 an amount of Rs 85 lakhs was paid to the Hindustan Waste Treatment Pvt. Ltd for clearing the accumulated waste so as to facilitate the dumping of fresh daily waste. Around the same time the MMC commenced their much hyped door-to-door segregated waste collection system by engaging the two agencies. Incidentally, one of the agency Bapu Environmental Social Service Organization was appointed directly without following any codal formalities,” he said.
Coutinho pointed out that the second operation of clearing the piled up waste from inside the plant just got executed around two months back, at a very huge cost.
And now very soon another few crores will go towards the clearing of the waste from inside the plant, for the third time, Coutinho lamented.
He added, “What is beyond one’s understanding is that when the council has been boasting about collecting segregated waste through two of their favorite agencies; and supposedly delivering segregated wet waste to the Sonsodo plant, then why does this segregated wet waste need Bio Remediation at such huge additional costs.”
