More than 500 tonnes of dry & plastic waste is dumped for want of adequate number of baling machines
the goan I network
MARGAO
Days after the High Court barred the Margao Municipal Council from open dumping of garbage at the existing dump yard, Sonsodo is now playing host to a different kind of waste – a mountain of dry waste.
More than 500 tonnes of dry and plastic waste stacked in polythene and jute bags is just dumped in the open at Sonsodo for want of adequate number of baling machines and manpower. Even as MMC segregates around 15 tonnes of dry waste every day, the dry waste is not baled at Sonsodo, but the waste stacked in bags is dumped on whatever open space is available at the
dump yard.
And, even if the MMC manages to set up two baling machines, one at Sonsodo and the other at the old fish market, behind the Municipal building, it will take days if not months to bale and clear the backlog of dry waste dumped in the open.
For, while the city is generating around 15 tonnes of dry and plastic waste, the baling capacity of the machines is put around 5-6 tonnes a day, indicating that it will take over a month to clear the backlog.
Officials in the know further said the civic body should go for at least half a dozen baling machines on priority basis to clear the backlog and treat the daily generation of dry waste.
Secondly and more importantly, the civic body has an arduous task to immediately rope in additional labourers to man the baling machines, in additional to undertake segregation at the black spots as well as to collect waste door-to-door.
An official in the know pointed out that the dry waste has piled up at Sonsodo for the simple reason that the baling machines as well as the manpower fell short of the requirements. “We are facing a huge problem in disposing off the dry waste. Unless the civic body ropes in additional workers, work of baling and transporting the dry waste to Karnataka will not take place in the near future,” he said.
The accumulation of dry waste at Sonsodo running into hundreds of tonnes has also drained the civic body financially. For, the polythene bags used for storing the dry waste are not being reused for the simple reason that baling has not kept pace with the requirements. “Each polythene bag costs the municipality around Rs 10. We need around 1,500 such bags every day and considering that the bags are not put to reuse given the prevailing circumstances, a lot of money is wasted on these bags,” an official said.
Meanwhile, the Shadow Council of Margao has demanded that the MMC streamlines the disposal of dry waste. SCM convenor Savio Coutinho has feared that the tonnes of dry waste dumped in the open may go up in smoke and cause an environmental hazard in the event of an accidental fire,” he added.
