------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Documented by Goa Desc Resource Centre Ph:2252660 Website: www.goadesc.org Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Press Clippings on the web: http://www.goadesc.org/mem/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------- Students to tackle garbage menace ---------------------------------------------- As Goa strains under mounting amounts of garbage and opposition to treatment plants at Colvale and Bendurlem threatens their very implementation, environment awareness among school children is expected to strike at the root causes of the problem and help mitigate it in the future.
This effort initiated by the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) is called the Goa Environment Education Programme for Schools (GEEPS). Supported by the state directorate of education, it is however implemented at the field level by 10 local bodies including the Goa State Council of Science and Technology, Carmel College, Nuvem, People's Movement for Civic Action, Panaji, the Vivekananda Environmental Awareness Brigade, Keri-Sattari and others.
"Each of these bodies or clusters takes up the task of conducting awareness programmes in 20 schools in their areas," said Mr Sujeet Kumar Dongre, the programme associate of CEE Goa. "Last year we reached a total of 127 schools. All the clusters do not have the full 20 schools with them."
What has evolved from the interaction with teachers and students during the workshops has come to be known as the four Rs of garbage management. These are Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Refuse. Segregation of garbage into organic and inorganic waste is also important to garbage management.
According to the CEE's findings, the towns and cities of Goa produce 186 tonne of garbage everyday. The population of these towns and cities is taken as 6.7 lakh. This works out to 278 grams of garbage per person per day. There are several tips to "Reduce" this garbage in the first place; avoid packaging waste by buying large economy packs and save money too, carry your own shopping bag and avoid bringing home unnecessary paper and plastic.
The "Reuse" of paper is also advised. "Recycling" organic waste, preferably in a common compost pit with neighbours to get manure for the gardens is also suggested. Last but not least, the programme advises to flatly "Refuse" to accept plastic bags from traders to minimise their proliferating the streets, markets and beaches of Goa. Importantly, the system advocates the "Segregation" of home waste by keeping different bins for different kinds of garbage; one for bio-degradable waste, another for plastics, glass, etc.
Though small, there are some success stories in this school awareness campaign. The Goa Dairy offers Rs 7.50 or one half litre milk packet free in return for 100 empty milk packets. Students of St Bartholmeu High School, Chorao, benefited from this scheme. They collected empty milk packets, sold them to Goa Dairy and used the money to pay for a cable connection to watch education channels.
Likewise, the students of Anjuman Nurul Islam High school, Panaji, used the money from the scheme to buy paper, pens, pencils and curtains for the classrooms. In mall ways, but the other schools are also making efforts at reducing garbage through vermi- composting and other means.
Only 127 schools covered so far means a small dent on the Goan garbage mound. But Mr Kumar of CEE says that in the next five years, CEE is targetting all of the schools in Goa.
Besides, the CEE are also consultants for the Environment Education in School Systems (EESS), which is implemented by the State Department of Education. Under this pilot project, 100 schools have been targeted in Goa as EESS schools to infuse environmental concepts of local relevance in the text books of social studies, language and science for class V, VII and VIII. ---------------------------------------------- The Navhind Times 12/2/04 page 1 -----------------------------------------------
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