Sarpanch warns of tourism fallout and oil spill risk
Cavelossim Sarpanch Dixon Vaz hands over a memorandum to Additional Collector, Ramesh Gaonkar. (Right) The vessel lies tilted near the mouth of River Sal.
Photo Credits: Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
After local fishermen and cruise operators spotted a vessel tilting at the mouth of River Sal, the Cavelossim Village Panchayat has knocked on the doors of the South Goa District Disaster Management Authority seeking intervention to tow away the vessel before it runs aground and leads to an environmental disaster.
Sarpanch Dixon Vaz, along with Panchayat member Irish Passainha, called on Additional Collector Ramesh Goankar and handed over a memorandum seeking urgent measures to prevent a disaster. The Additional Collector assured the delegation that he would immediately contact the ONGC officials to find out whether the vessel is a study vessel as claimed by the fishermen.
In the memorandum, the Cavelossim Village Panchayat drew the attention of the Collector to the vessel floating in the Betul–Mobor navigation channel towards ONGC, further pointing out that the vessel is tilted and could sink at the river mouth.
The memorandum requested the Collector to depute a team of experts and take necessary action to avoid any kind of disaster at sea which could harm the marine ecosystem and the tourism industry.
Later briefing the media, Sarpanch Dixon expressed concern over the tilted vessel right at the mouth of River Sal, saying it could pose an environmental disaster in the event of an oil spill. “There’s a ship that has capsized and sunk off Kochi in Kerala. The ill-fated ship has posed a major environmental disaster,” he said.
He added: “Just imagine if there is a spill from the vessel tilted at the mouth of River Sal. The Mobor–Cavelossim beach belt, which is a tourism hub, will be devastated.”
The Sarpanch further pointed out that the vessel may run aground over any delay in towing it away, which may block the navigation channel at the mouth of River Sal, impacting the fishermen as well as tourism stakeholders. “The mouth of River Sal is a navigation channel used by both the fishermen and the cruise and water sports operators. The channel will be blocked in the event the vessel runs aground due to the bad weather conditions,” he warned, urging the concerned MLAs to take up the issue with the government at the highest level.
Saying the Cavelossim–Mobor beach stretch has been invaded by water hyacinth washed away from Margao during the pre-monsoon rains, the Cavelossim Sarpanch feared that the weed has started rotting, which may affect monsoon tourism. “We have urged the Tourism officials to deploy machinery to clear the beach belt of the water hyacinth weed,” he added.
