Green Goa Works(GGW) motivates garbage collection

Green Goa works led by its chairperson Mr Wendell Rodricks, called upon Goan villagers to launch a weekly garbage collection programme while ensuring his wholehearted support, assistance and advice towards the initiative.

Green Goa Works (GGW) has embarked on a venture in partnership with the government of Goa to clean six villages in Goa from all plastic and dry waste. The proposal found easy acceptance wth the Environment Minister Mr Aleixo Sequeira and directed the Science and technology department to examine the proposal and sanction the funds which was done expeditiously.

The main initiative for the cleanup was to enthuse the village panchayats to adopt a weekly collection system of dry waste such as plastic, carry bags, paper , pet bottles etc that the villagers have no avenue to dispose the garbage as of today except by burning or by dumping in the drains. GGW has planned to make the necessary arrangements for the waste collection by tying up with waste recyclers.

However niggling issues are creating the roadblocks for the project.On its part, the Goa government has sanctioned Rs 25,000 per year to every panchayat for this work. However the estimated cost for this work is around 45,000 per year considering a cost of Rs 900 per week of village cleanup. The money is therefore lying unutilised. The village of Parra is however an exception. The sarpanchas of other villages have also complained about the un-cooperative attitude of the BDO in sanctioning the money.

While three villages of Parra, Assagao and Verla have been cleaned, Bastora and Tivim are next in line. The procedure for the cleaning is pretty simple. The Panchayat is first issued a letter of intention ad the purpose stated above. After their panchayat meeting, a letter of confirmation is issued and dates for the cleaning are fixed. The GGW supervisor then goes with the panch of the ward and is shown all the spots where the garbage is littered or strewn which are identified as the bad spots. Photographs of the spots are taken before and after the cleaning. After the cleanup the Panchayat issues a letter of confirmation that the job is done. The waste recyclers or the scrap dealers are then directed to collect the plastic and other dry waste. A report is next filed along with some photographs with a copy to the government for introspection.