Once hub of waste treatment ops, Sonsoddo now collection-transfer point

Margao: In a telling shift that underscores the challenges facing municipal waste management in the state’s commercial capital, the Margao Municipal Council’s (MMC) role on this front has been reduced to essentially a waste courier service.

While it is investing heavily in transportation infrastructure, its own treatment facility at Sonsoddo remains shuttered, and its fate undecided.The irony is stark: Where the council once focused on processing waste at Sonsoddo, it now dedicates resources and attention to moving that same waste over 20km away to a 100 tonnes per day (TPD) solid waste management facility at Cacora. The MMC’s waste treatment plant at Sonsoddo has remained shut ever since Fomento Green, which operated the facility, chose to withdraw in 2019.Sonsoddo, once the hub of Margao’s waste management operations, now serves primarily as a collection and transfer point. All wet waste from the municipality’s jurisdiction must now make the journey to the municipal solid waste treatment plant at Cacora, operated by the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC).This operational shift has forced the MMC to reimagine its role entirely.“While earlier the focus was on facilitating waste processing, segregation, and treatment, the primary concern has now shifted to leak-proof transportation and preventing spillage during the journey to Cacora,” a senior official of the MMC said.

Official sources said three new compactor vehicles specifically designed for wet waste transportation have been ordered through govt’s e-Marketplace portal, and they are expected to join the municipality’s existing fleet soon.“The existing compactors of the MMC are old. Besides, there are minor leakages from some of them during transportation,” a source said.To address the spillage issues that arose from this transportation of collected waste to Sonsoddo, the MMC has constructed two cross drains at the entrance of the Sonsoddo site to prevent leachate from reaching public roads, while a collection tank has been connected to the municipal sewerage network.Six years after the waste treatment plant was closed down, the MMC has failed to zero in on a technology to treat its waste. At its meeting held last month, the council approved a proposal to establish a 10-tonne gasification plant for solid waste treatment at Sonsoddo, after rejecting a previous proposal for a 15-tonne biomethanation plant. However, as the councillors insisted on inspecting a functional plant before providing final approval, the proposal has made no further progress.