GUILHERME ALMEIDA
MARGAO
Will Kerala flood-like situation hit Goa in the future due to environmental degradation and destruction of eco-sensitive areas? The debate rages as an environmentalist has cautioned the dangers being posed to the State on account of a host of factors.
Welcome, however, to the flood plains of River Sal “ across the villages of Seraulim, Mungul and Benaulim, where the government is trying to bulldoze with the Western bypass project through the wet lands and low-lying areas which acts as a water basin during the monsoons.
Villagers here have no idea whether Kerala flood-like situation will hit Goa or not. But, they appear pretty certain that their villages along the flood plains of River Sal will be submerged if the government does not pay heed to their warnings and bulldozes with the bypass construction with huge earthen embankments cutting through the flood plains.
“Seraulim villagers will be drowned by the water displaced from these wet land once the land is filled up to make way for embankments. The government is preparing the ground for a man-made disaster. There are no two questions that the bypass without stilts will submerge these villages by the displaced rain water,” asserted Seraulim villager and activist Rodney Almeida.
Almeida said the villagers have been agitating against the Western bypass not for the sake of opposition, but with facts that the water displaced by the filling of the catchment fields will submerge the villages of Seraulim, Mungul and Benaulim.
Adv Radharao Gracias, who dashed of a legal notice to the government on behalf of the villagers of Seraulim, Nuvem and Benaulim to stop the bypass construction, said floods in these villages will be in the making if the Western bypass is not built on stilts.
“You don’t require science to explain this. The vast tracks of low-lying flood plains of River Sal has been acting as the water catchment areas during monsoon. You fill up these catchment areas, and the displaced water will submerge the adjoining areas,” Radharao said.
He pointed out that the large tracts of the low-lying fields on the eastern side of River Sal has been filled up for a host of developmental projects, including the Nehru Stadium, Ravindra Bhavan, Sessions court, market complex, KTC bus stand, district Collector and the district hospital.
“The result is there for all to see. Flooding around the Margao-Fatorda area has been rampant in recent times. Similar fate will take place on the western side in the villages of Seraulim, Mungul and Benaulim once the catchment areas are filled up with earthen embankments,” he added.
Radharao said the government has replied saying that the work on the Western bypass has stopped along the disputed areas, but warned that the villagers will drag the government to court no sooner work is resumed along the 3.5 km Seraulim-Mungul-Benaulim stretch.
Incidentally, the high-level committee headed by then Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Margao Sanjit Rodrigues to formulate an action plan to avoid flooding in the flood prone areas of Salcete, has recommended a second thought on the Western bypass project, even going to the extent of suggesting that the required bypass to Margao can be achieved
by four-laning the Eastern bypass.
