Goa can't find dumps for garbage

It is election yet again in Goa and the parties are making promises to woo voters with their various schemes, but no party has a plan to tackle the garbage problem, which is indeed 'Goa's best-kept secret'.

The state is recognised as the fifth best tourist destination, does not have a proper dump. Earlier, the Goa government dumped all the garbage in a small village "" Curca "" on the outskirts of Panaji. During the rains, the dirty water seeped into the ground and contaminated the entire groundwater.

Following agitations against the Panaji Municipal Corporation (PMC), the garbage is dumped at the EDC Complex, the capital's commercial zone where offices of the Commissioner of Income Tax, LIC, Goa Museum, Passport, Registrar of Companies are located. Besides, it houses corporates like Airtel, Reliance Infocomm, Sita Travels, BSNL, Big FM, SBI (Goa) headquarters, LIC, Income Tax are also located here.

In a tourism-driven state like Goa, the problem has an added dimension-nearly 750 flights bringing in over 3.5 lakh tourists every fiscal and these tourists generate thousands of tonnes of garbage.

Now that the village folk will not allow dumping of garbage in their backyards, the government will need to formulate a plan to deal with this extra garbage.

Well-known fashion designer Wendell Rodricks, who has been at the forefront of the campaign for a proper waste management policy, says, "The frequent change of governments in Goa has put governance on the backburner. People's problems become secondary, as politicians plot to defect and pull a government down."

During the BJP-led Manohar Parrikar regime, the government set up a small garbage processing plant in Margao on a trial basis, but finding a location for the actual plant is a problem.

"The state government has identified two landfills, but the villagers have been opposing the plant," Goa Chief Secretary J P Singh told Business Standard.

The technocrat politician, Parrikar says, "Although, the garbage problem does not feature in our manifesto as we would definitely go ahead with the garbage processing plant in both districts if BJP comes to power."

On the other hand, the ruling Congress party swearing by its achievements during the last two years since it came to power; has asked the people to vote for its candidate to continue the pace of development. "Manifesto is made in such a way that we speak of welfare of people," maintains Uday Bhembre, Congress' manifesto committee chairman.

The pity of the matter is that Goa is so tiny (at 3,705 sq km) it needs only one or two dumps and a solid waste management system to process and deal with the garbage.

Since the furore, the government has asked village panchayats to come up with a solution. So far, nothing has come out of that either.