MARGAO
The Colva creek has got a fresh lease of life, with the weeds, plastic bottles and silt almost disappearing from the water body after the week-long clean-up operation.
But the bigger problem has come to stare at the stakeholders “ how would the authorities handle the discharge of sewage and wastewater into the creek, which has been the prime cause behind the contamination of the water body.
Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas said he has worked out a solution to address the sewage and wastewater issues that have come to haunt the creek.
After an inspection of the creek on Monday evening with the stakeholders, including officials of the Water Resources Department, Tourism Department and the Colva Sarpanch Johnson Coelho, the MLA has said a plan of action has been worked out, wherein the establishments along the creek would be connected to the STP near the beach for treatment of the wastewater pending commissioning of the 7.5 MLD Colva sewerage treatment plant.
“We are not getting into any blame game now. The buck stops with me. I am not saying that any of the establishments are discharging the raw sewage and wastewater into the creek. But, as a matter of caution, we have decided to connect the establishments to the STP on the beach to ensure that no more sewage and wastewater finds its way into the creek”, he said.
He added: “I have discussed the short-term plan with the Tourism Director, who was open to his suggestion to connect the establishments to the STP on the beach pending commissioning of the main STP plant. The stakeholders and the locals are all going to monitor the creek to ensure that it remains clean”.
Saying that the WRD will now install a wire mesh at the creek to stop bottles and other waste from flowing into the water body, Venzy said a walkway would also come on the western side of the creek as per the plan.
“I think our drive to get the creek clean has shown results. The contractor has done a good job in the last 7-8 days. We will put rafters and aerators to maintain the water clean”, he said, adding that he has approached the Tourism Department to revive the illumination at the beach square and also engage private contractors to keep all the beach squares in Benaulim clean.
