Produce It, Dump It, FORGET IT

Produce It, Dump It, FORGET IT
That’s What Goa Does With The Hundreds Of Tonnes Of Garbage It Produces Every Day. Some Positives Are There But Experts Warn We May Be Sitting On An Environmental Time-Bomb
Preetu Nair | TNN

Panaji: Goa’s homes produce 300 tonnes of garbage daily. More bio-medical waste comes from the hospitals and nursing homes. But most of this waste — some of it potentially hazardous to the environment — is dumped all over the state without any regard to the norms, some of which are a decade old.
Only five towns — Panaji, Bicholim, Mormugao, Canacona and Margao — have dumping grounds right now and these, too, are more than 75 per cent full. “We are staring at a real problem,” environmentalist Clinton Vaz said. “Even these towns, which have dumping grounds, are operating without safety precautions. They should be closed down and remedial measures should be taken immediately,” he added.
The other towns and villages do not even have a dumping ground; waste is dumped wherever possible, often in rivers and the backwaters, resulting in these water bodies choking and causing floods during the monsoon.
The bio-medical waste that Goa’s healthcare centres produce top the list of environmental concerns.
Only Goa Medical College and Hospital has the wherewithal to dispose of biomedical waste properly right now; it treats its own waste and that which comes from the two district hospitals (Asilo Hospital in Mapusa and Hospicio Hospital in Margao).
But this does not take into account the tonnes of bio-medical waste generated by Goa's 19 government primary health centres and 123 private nursing homes and hospitals. The PHCs dump their waste on their premises itself. Most of the private hospitals and nursing homes do the same or dispose of the waste with the other garbage that goes to municipality dumps; and not one of Goa’s towns has the wherewithal to segregate biomedical waste from other waste. This is extremely dangerous for Goans and Goa’s environment, say experts.
“Bio-medical waste, if not treated properly, can lead to disease outbreaks. Toxic waste can contaminate the water table during monsoon,” Goa State Pollution Control Board memeber-secretary Ashok Daiwajna said. Garbage is often burnt and the fumes can cause rashes and respiratory problems. Environmental activist Patricia Pinto agreed: “The toxic waste seeping into the groundwater can contaminate wells.”
Environmentalists are not painting an unnecessarily nightmarish picture; this has already happened in Curca. Garbage from both Panaji and Mapusa was being dumped in a land-fill site there without being treated. The site soon overflowed with garbage — it was meant to take garbage only from Panaji — and it started to be burnt. Very soon, the inevitable happened; waste seeped into the ground, contaminating wells and destroying fields. Residents there now drink tanker water.
The Curca problem has had a direct consequence. No town or village now wants a dump in its backyard and the administration has had a tough time scouring for vacant areas for land-fill sites for garbage.
“It’s extremely sad that compliance has not been achieved despite the High Court of Bombay at Goa directing the state director of health services to ensure that establishments covered by the Bio-medical Waste Management and Handling Rules-1998 complied with the rules in six months," environment lawyer Norma Alvares said.
2008 May 08 Times Of India Goa