Failed pumps, irresponsible officials and an entire taluka left thirsting for water. What a bizarre water story this! Two pumps go ‘dead’ due to an electrical surge, bringing water distribution to the entire Bardez taluka and parts of Bicholim taluka to an abrupt halt. Add to this a pipeline burst at Duler briefly cutting off water from the Assonora treatment plant. Imagine all of this happening while religious festivity reached its peak with Lord Ganesha making a sacred journey to Goan homes on September 12.
The fact of the matter is that till now nobody cared. Otherwise how can one explain the absence of any electrical-mechanical engineers at a water treatment plant which is more prone to failures? Ironically, there was no spare pump at hand, and officials forgot about a replacement to the water pump that went bad a good four months back. In an age where back-ups are part of any system, gross callousness on the part of PWD officials is clearly on display.
PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar tells us that he has sent an engineer to Ahmedabad to oversee repair of one of the pump. We hope that the engineer is lucky enough to return with the repaired pump on Wednesday. And yes, people will heave a sigh of relief and say a little prayer for its long life. Dhavalikar, people of Goa don’t deserve this kind of improbability over a day-to-day basic requirement such as water.
You promised breezy development and better roads and here we are still struggling for the sheer basics of life. Let’s not talk about the condition of roads, since it will be somewhat similar to the bumpy political turf. Let’s not talk of uninterrupted power too. Goans have witnessed massive power outages in recent past, inviting the wrath of the people. How can we forget the 22-hour shutdown Panaji faced in the first week of June this year? In adversities like these we see people spewing venom.
The water story has been no different. There have been consistent assurances of uninterrupted water supply to Goans, but till now they remain unfulfilled promises. If we may recall, while launching the online water bill payment gateway on September 26, 2014, Dhavalikar promised to solve all water woes with 24x7 filtered tap water supply by December 2016. Again in April 2017, soon after being welcomed again as PWD minister in the Manohar Parrikar era, the 24-hour water supply promise resurfaced. And this time it came with a deadline of 2019. Cut to the present and Dhavalikar now realized that the 50-year-old water pipeline in the State is in bad shape and needs to be replaced. The vague assurances of Goans getting their promised water now appear to be a distant pipe dream.
Goans don’t want promises and announcements, they want delivery. People are still shell-shocked with the formalin-in-fish scare, but they haven’t yet questioned the purity of water you are supplying them. The basic necessity of living is water. Don’t make Goans fight for it.
