The next time a sewage pipelinebreaks and mingles with a water pipeline, what does the CCP do? It prays.That’s the best it can do since it doesn’t have underground maps of criticalutilities to trace and mend.
Four major outbreaks of viralhepatitis, typhoid in a decade and the government department still gropes inthe dark every time water or a sewage pipeline breaks down in Panjim.
Confirming this Municipal Engineer M. D.Gaonkar said “We do not have drawings and plans of water supply pipelines,sewage pipelines and even underground power and phone cables running throughthe city”.
In May this year, a breach in apipe providing drinking water led to contamination near the Satkar Hotel. In this area a drinking water line falls below asewage pipeline. This problem has been ignored every year with cursory repairsbeing conducted. The Executive Engineer of the PWD Dilip Dhavlikar said “Wehave our plans but do not have the plans of the electricity department.” Thisis an example of the absence of coordination between government departments.
As for the electricityDepartment, its Executive Engineers began drawing the underground power cablingplan for Panjim when The Goan asked him if he had a plan.
Surprisingly CCP doesn’t have a mapof their own drainage system nor do they know the length of it. A sad state ofaffairs you would agree.
