As the simmering debate over the proposed Rs 350 crore marina project on the northern bank of the Zuari river rages, for a bunch of 40-50 multi-generation families wholly dependent on fishing for a living, it is not merely a debate. For them, it’s a real-life situation staring in their faces where all they know about life and the world could be snatched away, all at the altar of development and a fancy for those transforming Goa into a Singapore, a Thailand, a Monaco or a Las Vegas, even as those who rule the state ironically harp on Goemkarponn. As the date for the all-important ‘public hearing’ approaches, ASHLEY DO ROSARIO descends on ground zero and discovers that a pristine piece of Goa comprising Odxel-Cacra-Nauxim-Bambolim-Siridao-Agacaim could be lost forever just as the coast of Sinquerim-Candolim-Calangute-Baga was
Next Saturday may be just another weekend for many Goans, but certainly not for the thousand-odd inhabitants of the little fishing hamlet on the northern bank of the Zuari river called Nauxim, and perhaps, many thousand more in the surrounding villages of Odxel, Cacra, Bambolim, Siridao, Goa Velha and Agacaim.
Saturday, November 2, 2019 could soon change their world forever if the State and the corporate world have their way at the ‘public hearing’ scheduled by the North Goa Collector R Menaka, IAS, to discuss the environmental impact
the proposed Ahoy Marina project will have on the ecology of the pristine countryside.
The tourism industry is rooting for the marina, hungry as it ever is, to bring in the high-spending tourists to make their money on.
Heart of hearts, most of Goa’s politicians support it, although some legislators whose constituencies engulf the area, have smartly changed their stance and are putting up a facade of opposition only after a groundswell of support to scrap the public hearing built up.
What the project proposes
The AHOY Marina (Anytime Harbour of Yachts Pvt Ltd) will be a facility for boat parking and maintenance repairs and will cost an estimated Rs 350 crores, according to the documents filed by the promoters Kargwal Constructions
Pvt Ltd.
It also says additional infrastructure for ‘holidaying’, ‘pleasure spending’, staying, swimming, playing, shopping, convention centre and business / cultural meets and festivals will be provided.
The marina basin is proposed to be developed by dredging the bed of the Zuari river to a depth of 3.2 meters and by constructing a breakwater and a concrete jetty for berthing boats.
All this is in the waters and the company proposes to “reclaim” an approximately five hectares area on which it proposes to have buildings, roads and green belt development.
6 villages close ranks to
oppose
Traditional fishermen from Odxel, Cacra, Nauxim, Bambolim, Siridao and Curca have closed ranks to oppose the marina project fearing their world and livelihoods would be uprooted much as that of their brethren has along the 105-kilometer coastline been claimed by the tourism industry.
The fishing community fears that if the project does become a reality, the land on which their homes sit, will be gobbled up for hotels, restaurants and other ancillary enterprises which will be necessary to support a marina.
The State government, they allege, is adamantly pushing for the project against their wishes. They have for weeks been demanding the scrapping of the public hearing fixed for next
Saturday.
But what about jobs?
But why isn’t the younger generation from Nauxim excited about the promise of landing jobs once the project goes onstream? Clearly because they never got them although similarly promised when the seven starred hotel came up less than 200 meters away.
“Where are the jobs they promised us. Some of us even bought taxis but the hotel gave us no preference,” said one youngster who did not want to be named out of fear of retribution.
The handful who were employed in the hotel were soon retrenched within a couple of years, he added.
MPT jurisdiction row
The genesis of the Ahoy Marina, described as a ‘coastal facility for yachts and small boats’ in the EIA report submitted by the promoters to the GSPCB dates back to 2008-09, when the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) suddenly issued a notification declaring the extent of its geographical jurisdiction with the harbour as the epicenter.
Records of the Goa legislative assembly of those years indicate that when the marina was proposed and MPT floated the tender in 2009 which was eventually won by the current promoters of the project - Kargwal Constructions Pvt Limited - it kicked up a virtual centre-state row.
The Goa government had also shot off a missive to the Centre to define and if necessary curtail the geographical jurisdiction of MPT and also engaged a senior lawyer to analyze all the old notifications issued during the Portuguese regime and provide his opinion and advice on the issue of the jurisdiction of MPT.
But the then Digambar Kamat government raised an objection to MPT’s notification and constituted a six-member ministerial committee headed by the then Ports Minister Mickky Pacheco to discuss and tackle the issue. It comprised Joaquim Alemao, Churchill Alemao, Aleixo Sequeira and current WRD Minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues but as time passed, the matter got swept under the carpet and with it the project, only to get resurrected now, nearly a decade later with the Goa State Pollution Control Board taking steps to hold the ‘public hearing’ mandatory under the Environmental Impact Assessment Act.
The notification meanwhile, reiterated MPT’s jurisdictional limits to extend from the harbour right up to Betul along the sea coast and along the Zuari riverine belt up to Cortalim. It also claimed that the jurisdiction extended to the northern Tiswadi bank of the Zuari river where the villages of Odxel, Nauxim, Siridao, Goa Velha and Agacaim are located. The projects tendered in the Zuari river also prompted the Digambar Kamat government to study the fragile ecosystem in Zuari estuary and nearby areas. It commissioned the NIO to conduct the study which eventually found that the estuary was home to some 200-plus species of marine life, including the rare ‘window pane oysters’ and the endangered ‘sea horse’.
Close on the heels of issuing the controversial notification on its jurisdiction, MPT had also invited global expression of interest from private parties for a slew of infrastructural projects including a national port terminal, bulk cargo handling facilities and the marina in its ‘claimed jurisdiction’ of River Zuari. The proposals for marinas at Sancoale and Nauxim have to be viewed with caution. The Survey of India (SoI) toposheets of 1964 and Naval Hydrographic Office (NHO) charts drawn subsequently can be used to study morphology and areal extent of mud flats in the areas. The stretch from Agassaim to Siridao is characterised by a tidal flat which gets exposed sub-aerially at low tide. Sancoale and Siridao mud flats make this part of the Zuari River extremely shallow. A comparison of SoI and NHO maps indicate that the tidal flats formed over 60 years at least. The Siridao flat has extended considerably in space and time. Mud flats are a buffer zone between land and the deeper sea, thereby protecting inter-tidal habitats by dissipating wave energy. Such habitats reduce and even eliminate erosion. Under the CRZ 2011 notification, these tidal flats are classified under CRZ I since they are biologically active and hence eco-sensitive. No interference is permitted in such environments.
—Dr Antonio Mascarenhas,
former NIO scientist, and former member of GCZMA
