Highway patrol to nail garbage dumpers in Goa

A highway patrol to nail garbage dumpers and incentives to private entrepreneurs to salvage mounds of rubble are the next remedies in line for Goa, as the state plans a clean-up act.

Speaking to IANS on the sidelines of a meeting with real estate professionals, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said that both the measures could come in place by the year-end.

He said the two steps combined with other initiatives, which includes emulating German town Kaiserslautern's garbage treatment and waste management practices, could finally make Goa free of garbage, which has been threatening to damage the state's tourism prospects.

"We are going for a highway patrol, which will police the highways and look out for those who dump garbage. That way we can keep the roads clean," Parrikar said.

With tourism in Goa increasing nearly three-fold in the last decade or so, the state has been unable to handle the tonnes of garbage which the industry generates.

What has compounded the issue further has been the inability of the state government to identify a single site big enough, to dispose garbage, both organic and non-organic.

As a result, it is not unusual to find piles of garbage strewn along the roads as well as near urban hubs in this beach tourism destination, visited by 2.6 million tourists annually.

Parrikar said that a system was also being worked out where rubble and construction waste, created by rampant real estate development, would be sorted out in holding pits specially created for the purpose.

"Segregation is the key to managing garbage. What is happening now is that the roads and open areas are full of construction rubble, which looks very bad. The rubble will now have to be dumped in these sorting yards, where private agencies will be engaged to salvage whatever can be used," Parrikar said.

Parrikar has already planned to emulate the garbage management systems of Kaiserslautern, a town 110 km from Frankfurt having population of 1.65 lakh. He was impressed by the systems during a visit to the German town.

"There was no stink emanating or flies, pests menace in the vicinity of the treatment plant. I am convinced that setting up such treatment plants will be the solution to our long-pending garbage woes," said Parrikar, adding that three such facilities in Goa were being planned, where over 3,000 tonnes of garbage could be treated everyday.