Dear Goanetters,
The Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) has been labeled as a disappointing
public body, that keeps on failing on many accounts, particularly in the
management of garbage. I agree, as they are responsible for the mess they are
in. However, at times, there are others that are at fault, but as usual, just
the CCP gets its face blackened, and that's not right. I'm not defending
anybody, but just stating facts that have been missed, misreported or distorted.
Take for example the recent events that have taken place.
* - The Anaerobic digester has developed problems because of faulty design and
improper waste characteristics analysis. Besides the RCC platform developing
leaks, as a result, a 1mt+ thick layer of fatty tissues and oil residues has
formed within the digester and nobody including the experts and manufacturesrs
have any solutions to fix this problem. Now while CCP gets flak for its
failure, nobody's even investigating the consultant, Mr SR Malley, or the
Manufacturer Hydro-Air Tectonics who have abandoned this plant and been paid
substantial amounts for the construction of the same. CCP's repeated calls to
the consultant have gone unheard, and has now sent him a notice.
Odour from this plant was not originating from this specific failure. It was
instead from the accumulated waste stacked outside the plant for want of
treatment within this plant or any larger alternate area. In the absence of any
alternate treatment site, garbage was accumulating and rotting. Though CCP's
staff did treat the waste with odour control inoculants, it was fairly
inadequate, manually possible to only treat the surface waste and its
periphery, and as a result, the majority of this waste did not get treated and
hence the smell. About 10-15% of plastics, glass and metal mixed in by careless
hotel and restaurants made things worse, slowing the effect of odour control
mechanisms and causing mechanical failure once they accidentally entered the
plant machinery.
* - Schools protesting this odour were right in marching upto the CCP office
and protesting. However, students barging into the mayors cabin and littering
the mayors cabin, table and chair with waste was most distastefully. Is this
the kind of message that we want students to get? All meaning in the protest
was lost with this action. Wether the students were led or not, it was the
teachers responsibility and hence their failure. They too seem to have got away
from whatever action, squashed by the education minister.
* - In the absence of an alternate site for treating hotel waste, it was
decided to stop collecting the hotel waste in the last week of October.
However, with discussions with the hoteliers, it was decided to give them a
week, and then a fortnight to come up with alternate measures. The fact that
the hoteliers did absolutely nothing on this front was also ignored. CCP on the
other hand explored various ways of treating waste at alternate sites, with
shorter disposal times and so on. However, none of the initiatives proved to
provide a solution within a short time frame given. When the deadline was up,
CCP gave a further extension of 3 days and then stopped the collection of the
hoteliers. The media is given to understand that its a bad deal to th hotels,
while the CCP ignores their basic responsibilities. The fact is that the hotel
owners have not explored any alternate options and today the waste picked up
and disposed out of CCP's jurisdictions is paid for by CCP itself,
approximately Rs. 12-17,000 per day.
* - It's really strange that 12 persons from the same school all suffer from
nausea and vomiting all on the same day, that too immediately after a petition
was filed. Everybody knows that it was all made up, but the IMA, and various
NGOs hyped it even further with their comments, stating one could even DIE if
nothing was done. All this said about students that study at least 300-500 mts
from the plant location. What about the workers at the site that work there for
8 hours every day? Does anybody care about them? I've been at the site, and
yes, the smell is foul. Spend more than 20 minutes at the site and the odour
gets into your clothing and you smell of garbage for the entire day. However, I
have regularly been at that and similar sites for hours in the past 3 years,
but, I have never vomited or felt as nauseous as they claim. None of the CCP
workers have ever been taken to hospital for any of these symptoms. It all
seems to be hype, just because it was in their backyard. Classic NIMBY. Not In
My Backyard.
*- Now it's Bainguinim. First, please use correct terms. CCPs not planning to DUMP
garbage there. CCP needs sites for three major aspects of waste management.
Composting, Recycling and Landfilling inert waste. I believe that there is enough
space within Panjim's jurisdiction for setting up compost as well as recycling
units. The land does not belong to CCP, so assistance from the Government needs to
be taken in obtaining these sites. Composting & Recycling, if provided adequate
space has absolutely no pollution, or odour. We will always have the NIMBY factor
however, and while people have a right to protest if thse facilitates are not
running properly, but they have no right to object to infrastructure being
developed. If there is objection, or political interference, then the only option
is to find other areas out of the jurisdiction such as Bainguinim for this purpose.
Landfilling is unavoidable for inert waste.
We don't have a single 'sanitary landifll' in Goa as a good example. The Quarry
at Bainguinim should suit the purpose only if it is prepared by further rock
cutting to give it a rectangular shape, placing required layers of clay, rubber
and HDPE linings, building supporting infrastructure such as groundwater
monitoring stations, leachate collection ponds and treatment facilities. This
would take at least a year to prepare before the first truck of inert waste is
brought. As I've said before, composting and recycling have ABSOLUTELY NO
PROBLEMS if done in adequate space. In the absence of sites within Panjim,
Bainguinim looks like the next best place for the same. CCP has acquired
1,70,000 sq kms for this facility, and proposes to leave a 500 mt buffer zone
within its site to avoid any possible conflict. The site is remote, and is the
need of the hour. A temple and a school in the vicinity have only come up in
the last 2 years, with vested interests. If there is any similar site in Goa
that has such open areas, within a 20km radius of Panjim, and no nearby
residents or institutions, let the Government know, and it will explore those
options too. There seems to be a lot of politics played in Bainguinim, so its
not as simple as it seems in the newspapers.
The CCP needs to be working harder to get these problems addressed. It needs to
nip the corruption it's famous for, It needs to be criticized, but others need
their fare share too...
Will continue...
have a nice day!
Clinton..
Benaulim/Goa
+919890936828
From: Miguel Braganza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] Garbage Dump at Old Goa in the garb of Bainguinim?
To: Goanet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Dears,
It is not every day that Fr. Valerian Vaz, Director of Caritas-India and of the Council for Social Justice and Peace, intervenes in public debates on socially relevant issues. The last time Fr. Valerian made a telling difference was when one tabloid tried to defame the Executive Secretary of CSJP with the assistance of quotes leaked by an "accidental social activist".
At a public meeting held at the Se-Old Goa Village Panchayat hall [between the Basilica of Bom
Jesus and the Augustinian Tower archaeological excavation site]at Old Goa/Velha Goa on Saturday 22
November, 2008, he said, "Let the Government tell the people of Goa that the proposed garbage
dump is at Old Goa and then face the reaction." So far, the Government has refrained from
indicating that the Bainguinim site is actually close to the Augustinain Church and Santa Monica
Convent [where the mother of Abe Faria lived when he went to become a priest] and other heritage
structures of the World Heritage Site of Velha Goa or Cidade de Goa, the Rome of the East, while it
is in a hurry to find a dump for the garbage from the emrging "Las Vegas of the East" in
the river Mandovi.
The whole set of the protests against the "Anaerobic Digester" at Patto Plaza in Nova Cidade of Panjim were designed to reactivate the land acquisition at Bainguinim which was about to lapse due to the 2-year time bar of Section 6 notification under Land Acquisition Act, 1894. A colonial Act being applied to the colonial capital to promote neo-colonization.
It is not as if the Goa Government does not know that it owns and controls
thousands of square metres of land under Survey Numbers 40/1, 40/2 and 40/3 in
adjoining village of Chimbel [a former garbage dump area] that it wants to
convert into a Film City. It has inherited it from the colonial rulers.
The Government can make public the plans and technical details of different
kinds of Garbage Treatment Plants under its consideration in GSUDA, DMA, DoP or
DSTE. the District Planning Committees can consider which model is suitable for
their towns and which for their villages. The Gram Sabhas can choose from the
options available for village scale treatment. Some villagers have already seen
the working of the vertical Garbage treatment unit at the Codli mine of Sesa
Goa Ltd in Snaguem taluka.
Perhaps, Panaji's hotels could set up such units. Some of these hotels are
owned/managed by companies that dabble in iron ore mining.
Other hotels, owned by companies involved in real estate and construction could
divert some old cement mixers to treat biodegradable garbage with EM or
Panchagavya or other activated solutions to accelerate decomposition of
garbage. they can have in-house construction of masonary garbage tanks.
Why terrorise the only ST MLA in his Cumbarjua constituency?
Mog asundi.
