PANAJI:
Goa is currently facing a shortfall of around 65 million litres per day (MLD) in water supply, largely due to ageing infrastructure and losses caused by road digging and leakages, even as the State government plans a major augmentation of supply and replacement of old pipelines to address the issue.
Drinking Water Minister Subhash Faldesai informed the Assembly that the State’s total water requirement currently stands at about 695 MLD. “We are facing a shortage of around 65 MLD due to reasons such as ageing pipelines, leakages, and disruptions caused by road works,” he said.
To tackle the deficit, the government is working on augmenting an additional 325 MLD of water supply by December this year, followed by another 150 MLD by May next year. With these additions, the State expects its total water availability to reach nearly 1,000 MLD by December 2026.
Faldesai said domestic water supply would always remain the government’s top priority, while stating that the government plans to mandate every water connection holder to maintain a three-day reserve of water to deal with emergencies or supply disruptions.
At the same time, the government has initiated steps to overhaul the State’s ageing water distribution network. Out of the total 6,000 km pipeline network across Goa, nearly 2,000 km is more than 40 years old and requires urgent replacement.
“We have already taken up the replacement of 276 km of pipelines and plan to take up another 500 km in the coming year. The remaining sections will be replaced in a phased manner depending on budget availability,” Faldesai said.
The large-scale pipeline replacement programme is estimated to cost around Rs 1,200 crore. “We have moved a proposal to the Centre seeking financial assistance for the project, while additional funds will also be mobilised from the State budget,” he said.
The government has also proposed installing digital flow meters to curb non-revenue water (NRW) and detect leakages in the supply network. Faldessai said tenders had earlier been floated for the installation of around 800 flow meters, but the project was never implemented.
“We are now proposing to install digital flow meters across the network so that leak points can be identified more accurately and monitored in real time,” Faldessai said. He added that the move is expected to significantly reduce water losses and boost water revenue by nearly 30 per cent.
