PANAJI: Goa’s garbage problem has assumed alarming proportions, said former chief of naval staff Admiral Arun Prakash and asked the government to take steps to arrest the rapidly deteriorating situation. In a letter to waste management minister Michael Lobo, Prakash has said that unless Goa acknowledges the magnitude of the problem and tackles it on a war-footing, garbage will overwhelm Goa and defeat the purpose of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
The naval veteran, who resides close to the naval air station at Dabolim, said that the government needs to implement the Rural Garbage Scheme 2005 and the District Environment Plan 2020, while also strictly enforcing the Goa Non-Biodegradable Garbage (Control) Act, 1996.
“Within Vasco limits, one sees household garbage dumped in huge piles by the roadside, and occasionally a few municipal personnel, struggling to clear a limited amount,” Prakash stated in a letter to Lobo. “The citizen wonders at the inability or unwillingness of the state administration as well as local civic authorities to tackle this problem which is assuming alarming proportions.”
He stated that it has become standard practice for shopkeepers and households to dump their garbage along the roadside. Glass bottles, often broken, are being dumped along the roadside, he stated.
The garbage piling-up in public places and along roads is a huge health hazard for the state and could also deter foreign tourists from visiting Goa.
“If no action is taken to address the situation, foreign tourists will certainly switch to destinations like Sri Lanka, Thailand or Vietnam — which are not only far cleaner, but also cheaper than Goa,” Prakash stated.
The current neglect towards solid-waste management could soon make it impossible to collect and dispose the huge amount of accumulated legacy solid-waste, Prakash said. “Once the practice of casual garbage disposal gets embedded in the public psyche, it will be extremely difficult to re-educate people or make them change habits,” he stated.
The former naval chief still sees hope and stated that Goa, as India’s smallest state, could become a paradise of cleanliness if there is “political impetus and administrative resolve”.
“Till the door-to-door collection scheme can be implemented universally, facilities should be created for depositing household garbage in a central place in each locality, to preclude dumping on roadsides. This will require the construction, locality-wise, of a network of garbage disposal sites where vehicles can remove garbage on a daily or weekly basis,” Prakash stated.
He stated that garbage collection should be outsourced to private contractors and that garbage bins should be installed in public places and cleared on a daily basis.