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

Curca must wait longer! Garbage problem in Goa

by PREETU NAIR

PANJIM:
September 25, 2006: In the minutes of order submitted to the High Court of Bombay at Panjim, all parties concerned with the Curca garbage site - the Curca villagers (petitioners) and respondent state government, Corporation of City of Panjim (CCP) and Goa State Urban Development Authority (GSUDA) -- agreed to go ahead with capping the site. The work was estimated to be completed by May 30, 2007 and the expenditure sanctioned was Rs 1,09,64,625.

March 20, 2007: GSUDA comes up with a revised time schedule. The work of capping is now postponed by almost a year and is scheduled to be completed by March 31, 2008. Meanwhile, to prevent rainwater from percolating into the waste dump, GSUDA makes temporary arrangements to cover the Municipal waste dump with silpaulin, which is thinner than tarpaulin.

October 2007: Advocate General Subodh Kantak orally informs the High Court that the government was examining another proposal. He said that instead of capping the site, the government was looking into another proposal to shift the garbage to another site before the following monsoon. An application to this effect would be made in another week, he had informed the Court (the matter is yet to be placed on Board).

There is no method to this madness: after a year of planning, the government now proposes to shift the garbage, a proposal that they had disposed off much earlier, because it was not feasible.

Capping not feasible

"Capping of the Curca garbage site doesn't solve the problem. According to our expert's report, we should segregate the garbage. While the solid waste would be removed to the landfill site at Baingunim, the wet waste would be processed at the site itself and converted into manure," stated Chief Secretary JP Singh.
In fact, the government had decided to go ahead with capping the site relying on a report prepared by Mahabal Enviro Engineers Pvt Ltd., Pune, which was selected by GSUDA as the consultant for execution of the capping work.

Mahabal Enviro Engineers Pvt Ltd. in their plan "The Capping and Closure Plan of Municipal Solid Waste Dump at Curca" ruled out transportation not only because of lack of an alternate site but said: "at the most, the heap appearing over and above the ground level can be transported out. The earlier quarry has a depth of about seven metres below ground level. And this much municipal solid waste (MSW) can't be transported out immediately".

The consultants also looked into the possibility of incineration, as the existing MSW appeared to have good calorific value (judging from the combustion experienced); converting into compost, as the existing municipal solid wastes (MSW) appears to have good fertilizing value (judging from the bushes grown on the dump) ruled out both options as vermin-composting was once attempted by CCP (then Panjim Municipal Council) and took time.

And finally it was suggested that remediation by capping with best possible precautions would be the best option, which was accepted by one and all. But just when the Curca residents thought that the government would bring an end to their garbage woes by capping the Curca garbage site latest by March 31, 2008, the state government has sprung up a new surprise.

But hasn't the decision come a wee-bit too late? "We came to this conclusion on the basis of a report submitted to us by an expert Dr Mahale," added Singh.

Joaquim at sea?

Surprisingly, Urban Development Minister Joaquim Alemao stated that he is not aware of the change in the plans. "I am not aware of this development", he said.
Even the officials at GSUDA are surprised with the sudden government decision.
"The High Court had asked CCP to cap and close the solid waste accumulated at the site. On CCP's request, the state government entrusted the work to GSUDA. But when we were about to issue a work order to cap the site, government asked us not to go ahead with the capping", informed Daulat Hawaldar, Member Secretary, GSUDA.
In the past, with the CCP failing to take the "Cradle to Grave" precautions of solid waste, the Curca garbage site had become prone to spontaneous local fire due to combustible part that also generated odour due to organic part and created water pollution due to run-off from rains, causing problems for people in the downstream and down gradient habitations in Curca.

Forced by circumstances and an indifferent state government, the Curca-Bambolim-Telaulim panchayat approached the High Court praying that the CCP be directed to remove and dispose the accumulated garbage (approximately 1.75 lakh metric tonnes) in a time-bound manner. This move forced the government to get its act together and they recommended capping and closing of the site.

But now with the government coming up with another plan, it may just be another long wait for the Curca residents!



How the capping was planned

According to the plan, garbage was to be leveled into a rectangular patch and compacted before a 45 cm thick layer of granular soil and another 60 cm thick layer of clay was placed on it. Then it was planned to cap the area, spread over 14,820 square metres, with a 30 cm thick layer of vegetative soil, with grass planted for holding the soil in place and in an effort to curtail the seepage of rainwater into the ground. Further, to minimize the possibility of leachate penetrating the water table, two bore wells were planned to be drilled below the depth of 10 metres for the purpose of pumping out leachate and treating it through a physico-chemical process. It was also decided to keep a daily watch on contents and document quantity, if it was pumped to the collection tank of physico-chemical treatment.