Goa to follow on Mumbai’s footsteps to kick plastics

“Unless you educate the common people this garbage problem can’t be solved. Tourists also contribute to it on a large scale. It should be an all-effort war against the plastics, otherwise Goa will not be able to even breathe after some time” warned Petrica Pinto, convenor of GEF while talking to ENS. Several NGOs in the state have however submitted to the Federation that the dangers of waste plastic pose the most dangers to the state. It was pointed out that several villages all over the state still depend on local water bodies like wells which accumulate ground water in the monsoons. These water sources stand to be polluted by discarded plastic, according to written submission made before the federation.

NGO’s like Nirmal Vishva which had organized huge plastic collection drives in towns like Ponda are saddled with the waste. Waste disposal measures are poor in Goa and plastic waste like other garbage is left to rot in garbage dumps. It is feared that toxins from the plastic bags have already leached into the ground and polluted ground water in areas close to garbage dumps.

“Ponda is a growing, crowded city and therefore it is also dirty. Municipality like the Government is irresponsible. Therefore the garbage problem has became severe and is threatening to spread diseases out of garbage”, informed Kamalakar Sadhale, Convenor of Nirmal Vishwa.

With the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court taking up the problem of garbage as a suo moto writ petition GEF, Nirmal Vishva, People’s Movement for Civic Action, Goa Foundation and Margao First have now intervenor applications in the matter. Affidavits filed by GEF have forced the Govt to consider the problem of plastic waste disposal as a separate category from general garbage.

Although the Acts like Goa Non bio-degradable Garbage Disposal Act 1996 and the Plastics Recycled Manufacture and usage Rules 1999 issued by Ministry of Environment and Forests under Environment Protection Act exist on paper, but the state had done nothing to implement as the State Pollution Board and District collectors remained unaware of the role to be played by them for enforcement.

After three months of discussion a comprehensive report titled solid waste management in Goa was presented to the court last April. The government told the court that it would ban plastic bags below 20 microns. It however sought time till 31 December 2000 to complete the process.

However public campaigns have already started. The campaign which started on October 2 has seen volunteer bodies clean up Calangute, Candolim and Miramar beaches. At Candolim they have collected 19 truckloads of plastics so far. "Though the government has given us places to dump garbage, there is no recycling facility for dumping the garbage," lamented Patricia Pinto of the Goa Federation.

The Government may have to transport this garbage into neighbouring states and that may create further problems, was the fear amongst the local workers.

The campaign will be taken up in three levels: segregation of plastics garbage, reduction of plastic in daily use an a complete ban on thin plastic bags.

The state government officials like chief minister, Directors of Municipal Administration, Panchayats, and departments of Tourism, Education, Science and Technology have already been co-opted into the campaign.

Attempts will now be made to force manufacturers to take back the plastic garbage generated by them, state government sources said. But still the campaign against plastic in Ponda, Margao and Vasco in not up to the mark.

Kamalakar Sadhale of Nirmal Vishwa said that we requested the citizens to segregate the plastic waste at one place, but the Municipality didn’t bother to lift it for quite some time, but now they are ready to keep only two points for collection of plastic waste in each ward. They are also worried about the final disposal of this garbage. If the Govt. is ready to work with the NGOs it will not be difficult to eradicate this menace of plastic, but nobody is certain about the Government efforts in Goa.

Similarly schools and public institutions are being declared as plastic free zones.