by Nandkumar Kamat
AS per the global weather prediction, this year would be the warmest in recorded history. River channels and wells would go dry and reservoir levels would fall drastically. On paper Goa has a per capita freshwater availability of 1,645 litres per day. But it is difficult to get even 100 litres from public supply. What is the contingency plan of the government?
Perhaps it is expecting the World Bank consultants to provide the answers. The World Bank experts could have been taken to witness the dry bed of Merces lake, rapidly getting converted into a garbage dump or the Chimbel lake, the �Kuzmoraychem tolem� or Bhatim lake, near Goa Velha, or the Bondvol lake of Calapur communidade. The World bank experts could have been provided with the location maps of the domestic sewage tanks or soak pits dug into the watersheds of Panaji�s Altinho hillock, Nagali hills, Margao�s Moti dongor and the coastal area of Sinquerim, Candolim, Calangute.
The World Bank team could have also inspected thousands of leaking public water taps and how people liberally use the precious water for washing their vehicles or cattle. The PWD has admitted, without declaring any immediate plan of action, that it can not account for 34 per cent of the water which it supplies. This is a public revenue loss of Rs 25 crore per year. Is there a water mafia which is stealing this water from public supply? Or are there engineering faults in the supply network?
The entire focus of the government in Goa is on the supply side management of the water resources. But what about demand side management? What steps the government has taken to identify wasteful uses of potable water? To what effect the government has enforced the Groundwater Regulation Act? How many private water traders and suppliers have been registered with the state groundwater officer? At Tivarem and Mashel, the farmers had to agitate recently to stop a private water contractor from Margao from using a dug out well for the purpose of water trade.
Water traders in Taleigao and Saligao have already depleted the local groundwater table. The richest natural asset of Saligao, the Salmona spring is under threat. Since 1963, the water resources development issues are being discussed in Goa. But very few reports have paid attention to the traditional Goan systems of water resources management. Today, people who own good traditional wells also insist on public water supply.
Excellent and well-maintained community wells in the villages have fallen in disuse after the government promoted public taps and free tap water connections. The revenue authorities and the Directorate of Panchayats also did not focus on any consistent programme to make the villages self-reliant for their domestic water needs. Before liberation of Goa, there were 105 natural springs. At present we can not spot more than 25. Springs indicate the richness of the aquifers. But the developmental activities destroyed the watersheds and fragmented the aquifers.
What is the fate of the freshwater lakes of Goa? Very bleak; because their watersheds have not been declared as �no development zones�. The Merces lake is targeted for a proposed township. The catchment area of Calapur�s Bondvol lake would soon witness earth-moving machinery. The hillocks around the thousand years old Bhatim lake near Goa Velha have been bulldozed by quarry owners.
Most of the freshwater lakes in Salcete are eutrophicated with huge carpets of aquatic weeds such as Salvinia and Pitchia. What�s the position of the first order and the second order streams which feed the run-off to our rivers? Wherever there is access from the road, hundreds of private mining trucks and goods carriers are taken directly to the bed of these streams for washing. All the heavy metal silt, oil, grease, paint from these activity then enters the waterbodies. The Goa State Pollution Control Board has resolved that monitoring such type of pollution is not their business.
The state government has often said that it can not do anything to stop the entry of mining trucks and goods vehicles in the bed of any stream, river or lake. People who use soaps and detergents in stream or river water for washing utensils or clothes are also heavily contributing to irreparable damage to the water resources. The Anjuna dam releases water for irrigation. After irrigation, the run-off flows down to Sanquelim carrying with it heavy amounts of agrochemicals used by the farmers in the Anjuna dam�s command area. The PWD then treats this run-off without checking these toxic residues, chlorinates and supplies it to Sanquelim and other areas.
�What can we do about it? As long as people get water from their taps why should they ask questions about dissolved agrochemicals?� An engineer once told me when I expressed my shock over this arrangement. Millions of litres of water from public supply is used in the construction industry without assessing the fact that the dissolved chlorine in the water is bad for steel reinforced concrete structures. Has the PWD imposed any codes for the water used by the construction industry? The mismanagement of water resources of Goa is the biggest failure of the state machinery since liberation. Centralization and privatisation is not the solution applicable to Goa. There has to be strict enforcement of all the prevalent laws for conservation and pollution prevention of the water resources. The State Pollution Control Board should be held directly responsible for failing to monitor, detect and mitigate any episode of water pollution.
It has shied away from using its powers as it had been told to do so by the politicians in the past. The government must help the village panchyats to draw a local water resources mapping, conservation, demand and supply management plan. The agriculture and the water resources department had taken some excellent steps under the BJP regime for desilting village ponds, tanks and lakes. This scheme should gather momentum. The town and country planning department needs to draw a red line, a statutory, inviolable corridor of at least 50 metres form the catchment area of every natural spring, fountain, stream, lake, manmade traditional reservoir to declare these as �no developmental zones�.
The government should demolish all the plantations, farm houses and constructions which have come up illegally on the beds of tanks and lakes by using the provisions of the Irrigation Act, 1973 and other Acts. Help of Bhabha Atomic Research Center could be taken to isotopically monitor the leakages in the water mains and to detect �water thefts�. Extravagant use of water should be identified and a ban should be imposed during the summer on diverting water from public supply for swimming pools and lawns.
(The Navhind Times)
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