Cacora waste plant soon to be fully operational

Panaji: Goa Waste Management Corporation cleared the hurdles to enable the full-capacity operation of the solid waste management plant at Cacora to reduce the burden on the garbage treatment plant at Saligao.

A senior officer said that at present, the plant is operating at 70% capacity, and it will soon reach its 100% capacity. For that, all the waste generated in and around the plant will be shifted to the plant.

Waste from four talukas — Quepem, Curchorem, Canacona, and Dharbandara — will be treated at the plant by procuring additional vehicles.

A senior officer said that govt promised to use specialised vehicles to transport the waste to the plant to avoid slippage of leachate on the road while transporting the waste. “We decided to add additional vehicles so that the waste generated in South Goa is shifted to the Cacora plant to meet its full capacity,” a senior officer said.

The 100 TPD (tonne per day) solid waste treatment plant at Cacora started functioning but never reached its full operational capacity.

The solid waste management facility was set up under the aegis of the department of science, technology and waste management and the GWMC. It was set up on the site of an erstwhile waste dump and covers an area of approximately 81,000sqm.

The legacy waste dump was removed using bioremediation to make way for the construction of the Rs 173 crore plant.

The plant was constructed along the lines of the Saligao plant, and the design was upgraded to take into account the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, and learnings from the shortcomings of the Saligao plant. The plant will have separate lines for wet and dry waste, with the organic extruder being the heart of the system. The design and technical parameters of the plant were vetted by an expert committee.

New special vehicles will be procured to transport the waste to the plant without any leachate dripping on the road, which was the main reason for the plant not operating at full capacity.