It is obvious that the zero tolerance to corruption does not extend to the PWD and the huge scam in water supply. PWD officials were in fact recently rewarded for their manipulations by being sent on a trip to Japan ostensibly to study how to curb water leakages!!
While mega-projects, shopping complexes and hotels have 24-hr PWD water supply for their clients, their landscaping, their fountains and their swimming pools, ordinary citizens either thirst or pay through the nose to private tankers for water for their domestic needs. Shockingly, even the Goa Medical College & hospital faces regular water shortages. Unfortunately the Government has not been able to walk the talk regarding a 24hr water supply to citizens. No amount of populist schemes are of any value if Goans cannot get even a basic necessity like water. Can we have a policy in place regarding water? Introduce compulsory rainwater harvesting, especially for all new projects? Recharging of groundwater and regulating its use? Ensuring enough water to farmers? Educating the public against wastage? And can the Forests and Environment Department devise ways of harvesting the ample monsoons that Goa is so blessed with? Preferably beginning with Monsoon 2013? DM