Contents of Press Note attached in previous message: *SALIGAO GARBAGE STRUGGLE (SGS)*
*Brief History:* - From 1987 garbage has been dumped illegally on the Salmona hill. For the last 26 years, this has caused untold suffering to villagers living at the base of the hill and the surrounding areas mainly of Saligao, but of also of Candolim, Calangute and Pilerne as well. - Since the garbage is unsegregated, it contains tons of roting food waste from hotels, eateries and communities along the coast, medical waste, poultry and general slaughterhouse wastes, plastics, rubber, metal, glass, batteries and e-wastes with heavy metals and other recyclables; even raw septic tank sewage! - The garbage was first criminally dumped into a very huge, 60-foot deep, empty laterite quarry that today has filled up to overflow into an immense sea of garbage, estimated at a very conservative 30,000 tonnes. Rain water permeates this mass of stinking, putrefying garbage, creates a dangerous toxic soup that bubbles away in this huge cauldron, resulting in a deadly leachate. *Today, it is the largest garbage dump in Goa!* Like geological formations all over Goa, the entire plateau is a huge laterite aquifer, exactly like a gigantic *stone sponge.* During the rains this sponge soaks in pure rain water and stores it. During the rest of the year, the spongy aquifer filters the water into the 3 springs around, as well as the drinking-water wells of the 3 villages at the bottom of the plateau. - The toxic leachate from the pit filled with garbage, has seeped into this spongy rock formation and from there into our water table. It has contaminated the medicinal Salmona Spring water which vilalgers used for drinking, cooking, bathing, washing clothes, watering cattle and even as medicinal, mineral water. Not any more, as in *July 2009, the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), tested this water <http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/alert-on-ground-water-depletion/article5230728.ece>*and found it contaminated and unfit for human consumption. All the wells in Salmona and the surrounding areas are polluted; the water is not potable anymore. - The *Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) Report for 2012 <http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-10-11/goa/42939807_1_cag-report-north-goa-tar>*tabled in the Goa assembly on 10 Oct. 2013, clearly acknowledges the fact that *the site of the present garbage dump is the catchment area for the Salmona Spring.* *It also records the pollution of the spring by the dump.* - Besides the pollution of the village underground water table, villagers also suffer terribly from air pollution. The stench is unbearable and entire human communities in 3 villages, have no choice but to live in this stink...while eating, working, sleeping...24x7. - The rotting, stinking garbage attracts flies, cockroaches, rats, stray dogs, foxes, crows, egrets, eagles, vultures, even goats and cattle to feedat the site. Rabies and other epidemics are a constant public health threat. - *By this year 2013, the waste has reached 90.7 tonnes per day* from Calangute and Candolim *alone*, not counting the tons of garbage that comes in from the villages surrounding Saligao. This was stated by the same *Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) Report for 2012 <http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-10-11/goa/42939807_1_cag-report-north-goa-tar>*tabled in Goa assembly on 10 Oct. 2013. *The Present Problem:* - The Government now proposes to install a *bio-methanation* Garbage Treatment Plant (GTP) on top of this very garbage dump with the lanfill site, completely in Saligao, much closer to the Salmona Spring than the existing dump. The plant is the same as the one seen recently in Germany, by the 38-member delegation, sent by the Goa govt. to Europe to see such plants. - Becuase the plant endangers all 3 springs and human communities in the 3 villages, more than the present dump, villagers have proposed *an alternate site on the same palteau, **only 700 mts. away.* - Villagers in Saligao, have been in dialogue with their Sarpanch and, MLA , the MLA of Calangute, the Environment minister, the Chief Minister, the Director of the GSPCB and the Director of the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC). - Accordingly, on 27 Nov. 2013, the Government issued a *Notification <http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/epapermain.aspx?queryed=9&eddate=11/27/2013> to aquire this land for the North Goa Waste Treatment Plant <http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/epapermain.aspx?queryed=9&eddate=11/27/2013>(page 11) <http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/epapermain.aspx?queryed=9&eddate=11/27/2013>. <http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/epapermain.aspx?queryed=9&eddate=11/27/2013>* - Villagers have a 2003 High Court Order that says: *"**Once the Solid* *Waste Plant* *in North Goa is set up, **the present site to be reverted to the Forest Department,** as earlier it was under* *social* *forestry, so as to* *rehabilitate* *and restore it into its original state.**"* *Saligao's Response: 5 DEMANDS...* *The citizens of Saligao are not against a GTP, but they do not want it just above their Salmona hill. * *They have only 5 demands:* *1.* *Shift** the Waste Treatment Plant to the **safer, alternate site * *proposed*. *2. Have a dedicated approach road to the plant, instead of garbage trucks passing through the residential areas of Saligao.* *3. Completely clean up the present dump site, according to the High Court order of 2003.* *4. If the capacity of the plant is just 100 tonnes, then it should cater only to Calangute, Candolim and Saligao.* *5. If there is no segregation-at-source, then do not install such a plant on any hill, as all such bio-methanation plants in India have failed.* *SGS will shortly file a contempt petition in the High Court, asking the government to implement the order in Writ Petition No. 28/2003.* *Signed:* *- Dean D'Cruz – Member, Saligao Communidade* *- Desmond Da Costa – Member, Saligao Communidade* *- Ms. Margaret Beck – Saligao Panchayat Waste Management Committee* *- Arun Sawant – Convenor, Salmona Pariyavaran Manch* *- Diogo Fernandes – President, Saligao Citizens Forum* *- Ms. Juhi Prasad – Saligao Panchayat Waste Management Committee* *- Venancio Cordeiro – Member, Saligao Communidade* *- Ms. Alice D'Cruz – Member, Saligao Civic & Consumer Cell* *- Mario Mascarenhas – Jt. Secretary, Saligao Civic & Consumer Cell* *- Ms. Sonali Trivedi **– Saligao Panchayat Waste Management Committee * (ends) -- ................................................................ there *is* *anOTHERgoa* at <http://www.an*OTHER*goa.blogspot.in <http://www.anothergoa.blogspot.in>> & <http://www.youtube.com/anothergoa> ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' muriel & mario, c/o FULKAR, 6/22, sonarbhatt, saligao. bardez. goa. 403511. tel: 0832-2278276 / 2409999 <anothergoa AT gmail.com> ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
