ST INEZ CREEK - FEARS FOR AN EPIDEMIC By: Stephen Dias, Dona Paula
The restoration of the St Inez Creek lies primarily in the prevention of the causes of pollution. The most important aspect is to be able to stop with immediate affect discharge of sewage from all the tenements bordering the St. Inez Creek which Sidharth took in hand while he was MLA of Panjim, and did not materialized his dreams since he resigned to give away his seat to Parrikar for by-election. He also said that the sewage lines have to be provided to the houses along the creek so as to immediately decrease the amount of pollution of the creek which we agreed. Two years back, the condition of the creek was much better, the sheer negligence by the concerned authorities have led to this pathetic condition of the creek with authorities trying to blame each other of their responsibilities towards maintaining the hygiene of the creek. Action needs to be taken immediately so as to avert a major health outbreak due to water borne diseases like malaria, dengue and chikunguniya. It is a sorry state of affair to be given to know that an entire family of an ex-Mayor and ex-councilor of CCP and other nearby families has been affected by chickunguniya . The blame game has to stop and immediate measures taken to avert an epidemic of malaria, dengue, chikunguniya and water borne diseases. Before commencing work on the bridge over the St Inez creek off Caculo island to Campal, it was the duty of the GSIDC to at least clean the surface of the water in the creek which is almost stagnant and then conduct this work scientifically by releasing into the river. Also the cleaned surface should have been treated by spraying anti-malarial larvae disinfectant to prevent breading of mosquitoes. To excavate the accumulated sewage in the creek, first attempt have to be made to find a suitable dumping pit or reservoir for the trash and make sure there is no seepage to the ground water contamination. END