Four young lives were lost after they drowned at a stone quarry in North Goa last year, and the government, after a year of the incident has assured the NGT that it will fill up existing quarries to prevent such incidents in the future.
Last year, on September 15th, four students had drowned in a water-filled laterite quarry in Tuem village after they ventured for a swim. They were part of a 43-member group from a school that had come on a trek.
The NGT had set up a special committee to look into the existing problem of open stone quarries across the state. These open quarries pose serious threats to many people, mostly children, while incidents of wildlife getting trapped have also surfaced in the past.
In its reply before the committee, the Goa government has stated that it proposes to utilize fly ash, slag, inert, compost, and garden cuttings for the restoration of these open quarries.
The government proposed to include the last one meter of soil and compost. Also, plantations from the state’s biodiversity board or from the forest department will be used in these areas.
Earlier, the government had suggested filing these open quarries with solid municipal waste, however, it did not go down well with the NGT.
With this new suggestion, the state government hopes to resolve the issue of disposing remediated as well as organic waste from local village bodies around the area. This, if worked out as proposed, will help local bodies in disposing of organic waste generated at local village levels.
Open quarries across the state are a result of hill cutting, wherein laterite quarries are cut to make stones, which are then used for the construction of houses. On-site, however, these large open pits result in serious threats, especially during monsoon after they get filled with rainwater.
In fact, the NGT had asked the state government to come with proper guidelines for operations at these stone quarries much before this incident last year.
