Here comes Fomento on Mission Sonsoddo!

While the inferno of controversies continues to rage over Sonsoddo, Fomento Group now awakening to its Corporate Social Responsibility has offered to manage the garbage site, reports JULIO D’SILVA.


Although the stink due to the garbage at Sonsoddo has died down since Goa Foundation started managing it since November last year and though the fire that engulfed it has been capped, controversies dogging this site refuse to die down with the Fomento Group now awakening to its Corporate Social Responsibility and offering to manage the site.
It may be recalled that Goa Foundation had offered to manage the site and set in place the necessary equipment to handle the nearly 40 tonnes of garbage dumped at the site everyday. They also offered to treat and dispose the accumulated garbage.
After much deliberations and delays primarily initiated due to Urban Development Minister Joaquim Alemao’s aversion to Goa Foundation, the authorities approved their proposal, as the five-member committee appointed by the government to whet their proposal, backed it.
Having started the work at Sonsoddo on 27th November 2008, Goa Foundation has baled nearly 60 tonnes of plastic waste and prepared 60 tonnes of compost from the meat and vegetable garbage that was brought everyday to the site.
“The baled plastic and compost is totally worth around Rs 2 lakh and the municipality is in the process of issuing tenders to sell it,” disclosed Claude Alvares of Goa Foundation.
Margao Municipal Chairperson Savio Coutinho however pointed out that there were no takers for the plastic at the moment as due to the recession, there are no takers for plastic to be recycled. He also admitted that a company from Maharashtra had evinced interest in lifting the compost.
However, it has not been smooth sailing for Goa Foundation, as it had to struggle at every moment. “The council took one month to provide me with a 100 metre long pipe of one-inch diameter that was required to tackle the fire at the site,” disclosed Dr Alvares while pointing out that though they are only supposed to handle the garbage that is brought in daily, they are offering to treat the nearly 120 tonnes of accumulated garbage at the site that had caught fire.
While pointing out that their work has been stalled because the MMC is yet to provide them with a three-phase connection, Dr Alvares said it was because of these delays that he moved the court that has now directed that a fire tender be provided to them to tackle the fire that is raging underneath and has merely been capped by dumping mud on top.
Experts opined that fire at the site was inevitable since any decomposing process releases methane gas, which is highly inflammable and those working at the site revealed that practically everyday there is fire sprouting from some place or the other which has to be doused.
“There is fire raging underneath, which cannot be seen because of the mud dumped on top. But if you dig, you are bound to find the fire which probably only the monsoons may be able to put off,” opined Subhash Kamat the supervisor at Sonsoddo.
But even as the situation at Sonsoddo was as mentioned above, the situation has now taken an interesting turn with Fomento Group offering to manage the site.
“We have to consider their proposal even though they have not given any details, because there is no financial liability involved and I do not want any allegations against me tomorrow,” said Coutinho.
He informed that Fomento has offered to manage the Sonsddo site on Design, Build, Operate and Transfer basis, but not given any time-schedule for this entire exercise. Besides, Coutinho disclosed that a few clarifications are required from Goa Foundation.
“Initially Goa Foundation had proposed to set up two machines that would sieve the garbage at the rate of 75 tonnes per hour but are now proposing to purchase two machines of 45 tonnes capacity,” pointed out Coutinho.
Besides, he revealed that Goa Foundation had quoted an amount of Rs 51 lakh for the first phase that involved tackling the daily garbage. “We have done it departmentally for the moment by using our staff and it has cost us only around Rs 10 lakh,” said Coutinho justifying why he has to take the Fomento’s proposal seriously.
Dr Alvares clarified that the capacity of the machines was a genuine typographical error on the covering letter though on all other documents the capacity was clearly mentioned as 45 tonnes.
As for the expenditure, he pointed out that the work has not yet commenced on the scale it was meant to be because of the procedural and other delays. “I am not into this for business but as an environmentalist, I genuinely feel that Sonsoddo can be an example for others to show how garbage can be managed scientifically,” he asserted.
“I would be more than happy if somebody takes over the site and manages it. In fact, that is our aim - set up the infrastructure and then let somebody manage it,” said Dr Alvares reacting to Fomento’s offer.
However, he was wary of the offer coming from Fomento. “In the first place, they have no expertise as they cannot handle the garbage at their hotel Cidade de Goa while we have the expertise and we have worked at Sonsddo earlier,” he said.
Senior Director of Fomento Resources, Francisco Lume Pereira clarified that his company was only facilitating the project by engaging the services of Pune based ILNFS Ecosmart to initially study the situation and then manage the site.
“As we do not have the expertise, we have engaged the services of ILNFS that is managing the garbage site at Okla in New Delhi, which has also been visited by Chief Minister Digambar Kamat,” he said while adding that the company is managing 10 other garbage sites in the country.
ILNFS is currently studying the site and in the last half of February 2009 took bore hole samples of the accumulated garbage to study the character of each strata and within two months are expected to give their suggestion on how the site is to be managed.
“Our Chairman Audhut Timblo, in the last week of January this year, suggested that we take up this project as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility probably after visiting his mother who lives in the vicinity of Sonsddo,” said Pereira.
Sujoy Gupta, Vice President-Communications of the company stressed the point of Margao being close to the heart of the Timblos as they hail from the area and how Timblo wanted to do something for the city and particularly in handling the garbage that is giving the town an ugly look.