ZAIRA NORONHA
ALDONA
A group of environmental activists on Sunday appealed to the people of Aldona to form a group of like-minded people to meet and discuss issues, use RTI Act extensively to gather data and to participate actively in gram sabhas as part of efforts to keep their village clean, green and serene.
The activists were interacting with a group of Aldona residents at the Parish Centre of St Thomas Church, on ways to protect Aldona’s unique and diverse environment, which has witnessed a series of changes in recent times. The meeting was moderated by Adv. Caroline Colaco.
A Rainbow Warriors member through a power point presentation displayed a super imposed Google map of Aldona on the Regional plan, while Abhijit Prabhudesai of Rainbow Warriors said unscrupulous land sharks and others are conniving with authorities to change land use, which would destroy the source of food.
He further wondered if nationalisation of rivers was a plan by the government to build jetties for the transportation of coal rather than people.
"We should be working very hard to save our Goa, a beautiful land which has been destroyed over the years due to many reasons," Prabhudesai said.
He appealed to the people of Aldona to segregate garbage into recyclable and non-recyclable waste.
“While everyone is attempting to find a solution to dispose garbage, we must never burn garbage, as burning increases the problem a hundred fold as hazardous gases, which include carcinogenic particles, are released in the atmosphere," he added.
Prabhudesai added that garbage was not the only problem faced by people.
“The very land that produces our food and water is being destroyed by indiscriminate felling of trees, cutting of hills, filling of fields and so on. If we do not protect our land, a day will come when we will have to leave this place and run away,” cautioned Prabhudesai.
Adv. Colaco later had an interactive session with people and many suggestions were put forth on how Aldona could start tackling its problems.
Some of the decisions taken included a regular meeting of like-minded people to discuss issues, using of RTI Act extensively to gather data and to participate actively in gram sabhas.
On the side lines of the meeting, organic food such as brown rice, mangoes, home made pickles etc. were on display and sale.
