MARGAO
The migrant-inhabited Azad Nagar or Babu Nagar, located a few metres away from the Margao railway station, has been the favourite hunting ground for votes for the local politicos, be it in the election for the Goa Legislative Assembly, Lok Sabha or the Margao Municipal Council.
The area had even played host to face-offs amongst political leaders over the naming of the colony since the time it was set up to rehabilitate displaced persons from a nearby bandh to make way for the Konkan Railway over two decades ago.
Little did the netas and the Babus realise over the last two decades that the waste and kitchen water discharge from the colony, which has around 140 water connections, as per the PWD data, was finding its way into a drain which joins the Kudchadkar storm nullah.
Incidentally, while the sewage from the colony finds its way into the sewer line given that the public toilets are connected to the underground line, no mechanism is in place to channelise the waste and kitchen water into the underground line.
Thanks to Prof Antonio Alvares, a resident of neighbouring Navelim, the petitioner in the High Court in the Public Interest Litigation on Salpem lake pollution, not only the powers that be, but the Babus are all on their toes on a one-point mission “ how to channelise the waste and kitchen water from the colony into the underground Margao sewage line and stop the water from flowing into the stormwater nullah.
With the High Court monitoring the Salpem lake pollution issue, officials of the Sewerage Infrastructure Development Corporation of Goa (SIDCG), PWD, Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), Health and the Margao Municipal Council are on the job how to ensure the colony is connected to the adjoining sewerage line on priority.
After Margao MLA Digambar Kamat convened a high-level meeting of concerned officials a week ago, the core committee headed by Margao Municipal Chief Officer Manuel Barretto on Friday had its first meeting to take stock of the situation and how to go about the work.
At the meeting, petitioner Alvares made a mention of sources of sewage discharge in the nullah polluting the Salpem lake, including the Kudchadkar nullah.
Incidentally, GSPCB official Pravin Faldessai is believed to have suggested exploring the possibility of putting an arrangement to tap wastewater from all the structures situated at Azad Nagar at one location before it is pumped into the main sewer line.
As things stand, the SIDGCL official Tejas T Fadte has said the work of preparing estimates to lay the pipeline in the interior of Azad Nagar to tap the wastewater is underway, further saying the process will be capped and forwarded for sanctions, including administrative and technical section, within three weeks.
MMC Chief Officer Barretto, however, insisted that the SIDGCL should give a timeline for when the work of laying of the sewage pipeline in the interior of Azad Nagar will be tendered and the time required for the issue of the work order and completion of work.
What has raised hopes of the line in the interior of Azad Nagar becoming a reality is that the SIDGCL official informed that funds may not be a problem since the Corporation has funds to take up the work.
Members of the core committee including its Chairman, Margao Municipal Chief Officer, besides members representing the Sewerage Infrastructural and Development Corporation of Goa, Executive Engineer, Public Works Department DIV XXI, Goa State Pollution Control Board and Health Officer, Urban Health Centre, Margao.
Prof Alvares had moved the High Court with the Public Interest Litigation to plug the flow of sewage into the Salpem lake and restore the lake to its pristine glory.
