Goan greens promote waste management: If protests, petitioning and campaigns covering decades don't seem to bring in the desired results, what does a group of environmentalists do? In Goa, they form a company. Green Goa Works is a private firm set up here by prominent individuals who have long been associated with environmental causes. A not-for-profit undertaking registered a year ago, it has only now come out to talk about its work - treatment of solid waste through environment-friendly technologies and management of domestic sewage. Nationally-noted fashion designer Wendell Rodrigues is the company's chairman. Its managing director is Captain Leo Lobo, a retired seafarer linked with groups like the People's Movement for Civic Action. Other directors of this unusual company include environmentalist Claude Alvares, who set up base in Goa in the 1970s and helped create a generation of young environmentalists here, and three prominent local green-architects Sarto Almeida, Kamlakar Sadhale and Dean D'Cruz. "This company was registered after its promoters felt that unless technically competent people and eminent citizens of civil society came forward to assist the authorities, problems relating to garbage management and sewage will only exacerbate," said Lobo. In a relatively affluent, middle class-dominated state of 1.4 million people - visited by a tourist population one-and-half times its population - garbage management has been a serious concern here in recent years. Goa has changed sharply from a low-waste society to one where plastics and litter pollute large areas, including hillsides. Said Claude Alvares, "It has been apparent to the Goan public for some time now that neither the government nor local authorities, including the municipal councils, are serious about the garbage issue." Green Goa Works argues that municipal councils are still ill-equipped to deal with garbage in an environment-friendly manner. Most resort to simply burning or dumping the garbage, despite the environmental consequences of such measures. It says it is working on two useful technologies - Effective Micro- organisms (EM) and the processing of garbage through earthworms. Some small hotels in Goa have started converting to EM for cleaning toilets, kitchens and sewage pipes. These include the Caritas Complex in Panjim and Verem Villas at Verem. EM-based solutions are also being used at the Panjim market and the Mapusa fish market to treat the waste of the Sonsodo garbage dump in South Goa, and for the rehabilitation of Dempo Mining iron-ore site at Bicholim, about 40 km from here. "This microbial solution based on benign micro-organisms is not only effective but far cheaper than the deadly commercial agents available in the market, including phenyl," Lobo said. Ivo Costa, of Goa's major fish and meat processing industrial unit Costa & Costa, said his company had completely converted to EM treatment of all its wastes and for general cleanliness of its factory premises. "This also allows the company to earn from its waste, while it earlier paid the municipal council to collect and dump it," he said. EM was used to control problems of septic tank overflow and bad odour at Father Agnel's Ashram Polytechnic at Verna, according to Green Goa Works. Using earthworms is also bringing in positive results. For the first time the state has more than 22 earthworm bins - from small to extremely large - for a variety of users. One vermicomposting unit is at Kamat Gardens, the first modern housing colony that processes its own garbage and uses the vermicompost for the lawns. Some of it is given back to residents to maintain potted plants in their flats. The Kamat Gardens unit generated Rs.3000 worth of compost from the first of its seven bins last month, Green Goa Works said. Mathias Portofino Park Plaza in Sinquerim is currently constructing a unit for its entire complex. Most of these are small hotels in a state where big players and global chains dominate. But Green Goa Works sees the initial results as encouraging. "A significant number of Goans are putting up individual chamber bins for treating household garbage. Green Goa Works is signing maintenance agreements to ensure that the units continue functioning through weekly visits," said Lobo. (Indo-Asian News Service) - Forwarded by AlmeidaG(ji), www.goa-world.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. 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