BY ROQUE DIAS | NT NETWORK
MARGAO: Sonsoddo which is in the commercial capital of Goa – Margao, has a very colourful history. Lot of ideas, deals were planned and worked to treat piling garbage at Sonsoddo, but what finally generated from it were filth, smoke and decay.
No doubt, the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat, who is incidentally the Margao constituency MLA, has tried his best to solve the issue. The chairperson of Margao Municipal Council (MMC), Mr Savio Coutinho agreed that there was a list of controversies over the Sonsoddo dump. "In my opinion, the Rs 7.31 crore garbage treatment plant will be set up by March 2011 as the tender was allotted to the bidder -- Sociada de Fomento. There were two bidders when the MMC expression of interest was invited," he informed.
Mr Coutinho, an engineer by profession puts in a word of caution, "Considering the shortage of space at the site, this plant should lay stress on rejects and no recyclable items should be treated as reject. Proper segregation would help reduce the reject," he added.
He said MMC is facing space crisis and as such there would be no space to house the rejected volume.
The two-time chairperson, Mr Coutinho said, "Many times we have observed that surrounding panchayats, including the coastal area panchayats, also dump their waste in MMC bins. Few of them were even caught red handed and were released after being given a strict warnings" the chairperson said, adding during his tenure, he personally monitored the situations and six such cases were filed with the Margao police station.
"We will not be allowing any panchayat, even it is from coastal areas, to dump their waste at Sonsoddo as it is only for Margao. Fomento company is doing the job of setting up the plant and we are hopeful that it will complete by March 2011," said the Urban Development Minister, Mr Joaquim Alemao who visited the Sonsoddo site and took stock of the prevailing situation several times.
Mr Coutinho adds further, "An expression of interest was invited for setting up of treatment plant. Two parties applied -- Sociada de Fomento and Ramky. In the meantime, the government appointed a consultant, Mr P U Asnani and he approved it verifying all pros and cons," informed Mr Coutinho.
The local councillor, Ms Ciriaca Rodrigues however expressed uncertainty that the plant would be commissioned in March 2011. "At least another year is required to clear the waste from the site," he opined. An official of the Fometo group, Mr S Kamat said that they are trying to set up the plant by March 2011. "However there is lot of work at the site. Mechanical segregation of waste has to be done at the site and that’s what we are doing. Time is required to clear the tonnes of waste piled up here," he added.
Sources however said that around 65,000 tonnes of waste has to be removed from the site to make space for the plant. It now all depends of how fast the company Fomento segregates the waste with the cooperation of the Margao Municipal Council.
