The monsoon season usually arrives in Goa with a flurry, drenching the State and testing the State’s disaster management preparedness. We have had years when the State has been battered, with trees uprooted and the landscape flooded. This year, however, is a different story. The rain is coming in trickles and water reservoirs are feeling the stress with levels sinking alarmingly low.
Goa is confronting the combined consequences of climate uncertainty, policy inertia, and years of inadequate planning on water conservation. The water level at the Anjunem dam dipped to 10 per cent, Panchawadi to 19 per cent, Selaulim recorded 28 per cent while Tillari was at 30 per cent. The figures tell a story that can no longer be brushed aside. Water Resources Department Minister Subhash Shirodkar on Monday said the department is ready to facilitate pumping of 40 to 50 MLD of water from the Pissurlem mining pit to the Podocem Water Treatment Plant.
The irony is that while these numbers are dipping with monsoon recording a near-50 per cent deficit in the State, the official messaging remains curiously reassuring. Days before concerns reached a crescendo, the Water Resources Minister urged citizens not to panic, maintaining that supplies would last for several more weeks. Today, the talk was about future plans and how mini-dams could resolve future problems. Such statements may have been intended to prevent alarm, but they also reflect a tendency within the system to rely on optimism rather than preparedness.
At the heart of the problem lies Goa's overwhelming dependence on the annual monsoon. Despite repeated warnings about changing weather patterns and increasingly erratic rainfall, the state still lacks a robust, decentralised strategy for water conservation and storage. Water management remains largely reactive, springing into action only when shortages become impossible to ignore.
The government's recent decision to make rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharge mandatory for borewell owners highlights this pattern. While the measure itself is sensible and long overdue, introducing it in the midst of an emerging crisis underscores the absence of a larger, long-term vision. Effective water security cannot be built through emergency circulars issued when reservoirs are already running low. It requires sustained investment, planning and implementation years before shortages occur.
Water supply has been a major issue grappling citizenry across the State, more especially rural Goa. On paper, the State proudly celebrates its Har Ghar Jal scheme, but on the ground, a distressing story emerges. In Ziltawadi, a forest village in Canacona, residents have reportedly been forced to dig pits in dry streambeds to collect muddy water for daily use. In Talsai, located within the catchment area of the massive Selaulim dam itself, basic piped water access remains elusive. There are dozens of villages where an hour’s supply of water is a luxury.
Adding to this misery is the fact that Goa continues to undermine many of its natural systems. In Karapur-Sarvan, residents are fighting large-scale housing developments that threaten fragile hill slopes and groundwater reserves. Across the state, hill cutting, unchecked construction, pollution and untreated sewage are placing increasing pressure on the Mandovi and Zuari river systems. The very ecosystems that help retain, filter and replenish water are being steadily degraded.
Goa needs a Water Resources Department equipped not merely to manage routine supply, but to anticipate and prepare for drought conditions through clearly defined contingency frameworks. Real water security will not come from mere assurances. It will come from a policy shift that includes large-scale rainwater harvesting infrastructure, protection of watersheds, stronger regulation of ecologically damaging development, and a transparent, science-driven strategy to restore rivers and groundwater systems.
