It’s monsoon time once again and despite the May thunderstorm that brought the State to its knees, there have been no lessons learnt, more so in the commercial capital. While the Met department has been continuously chasing the arrival of monsoon for the past few days, the couple of false starts which we had till now were enough to expose the level of State preparedness.
Stray spells of rains have left key places in Margao inundated, including the road overlooking the house of the City fathers and the old market area. A few days back, a two-hour wet spell not only saw water entering commercial establishments, and flooding areas like the station road and the much-talked about Comba subway.
This has exposed not only our pre-monsoon exercises of clearing storm-water drains and cross drainages, but has raised questions over why we are yet to find a long-term solution to the flooding that we witness every year. In an age where government boasts about development at every stage, we have fallen way behind in tackling flooding which has returned to haunt at the very same areas, year after year.
There are around 28 major nullahs besides drains that require clearing ahead of monsoon. The very fact that a short spell could sink roads and bring life to a halt is indication enough that something has gone horribly wrong with the pre-monsoon work. Questions also need to be raised on the timing of desilting of drains undertaken by Water Resources Department, when the municipality claims that it had forwarded the file a month back.
Excuses and explanations on flooding cannot go on forever, its time government comes out with a lasting solution, instead of scurrying with patch-up jobs. Flood prone areas have been neglected and only seasonal solutions have been offered. A case in point is Paroda which has witnessed consistent flooding for decades with no solutions in sight. So is the case with desilting of River Sal.
The government has to go back to the recommendations of a six-member expert committee presented in 2000 under the chairmanship of Sanjit Rodrigues. An action plan needs to be put in place keeping those proposals as a base.
While rains threaten to sink parts of the commercial capital, in far away Tiswadi, Bardez and Sattari, people are grappling with issues of a different kind. Frequent power cuts in Porvorim, Valpoi and several areas of Tiswadi have left people seething with anger even as pre-monsoon work is undertaken with rains at the doorstep.
The power sector has failed to keep pace with the changing times and Goa desperately awaits improvisation and innovation from the disconnected state which it is in. We have seen mobile transformers during Digambar Kamat’s tenure as power minister and a piecemeal underground cabling during Aleixo Sequeira’s stint at the helm. But there is nothing substantial to alleviate the power woes of the common man.
As we welcome the rains once again there is absolutely nothing to cheer about and the uncertainty continues to loom over the basics of life. The systems have failed us for yet another year and once again we have to bank on the Heavens above to bail us out of this quagmire.
