A comprehensive drainage plan was recommended by Union Minister for Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari’s envoy R K Pandey to mitigate large scale flooding along the flood plains of river Sal around the Khareband-Benaulim stretch during the monsoons.
Pandey had made specific recommendations to take care of flooding while turning down the demand of Benaulim farmers and villagers for the construction of the western bypass on stilts.
Pandey was categorical in his report that construction of the bypass on stills will not solve the perennial flooding witnessed in the flood plans of Khareband-Benaulim every year unless a comprehensive drainage plan is implemented in the area.
In fact, Pandey had called for measures for increasing discharge capacity of Sal river through de-silting and dredging and also provide additional discharge area from Varca road to Sal river by way of increasing the culvert size or its numbers.
Pandey’s report was submitted to the Goa government in August last, with the PWD, National Highway forwarding the report to the Water Resources Department (WRD) for implementation.
With dark clouds hovering over the sky ahead of the ensuing monsoons and the spectre of flooding coming back to haunt the farmers and villagers, a visit to the Khareband-Benaulim flood plains have revealed Pandey’s recommendations are not implemented on the ground.
Otherwise, consider this. Work on a new culvert is underway on the Benaulim-Varca road near the Mercado mall. Going by the pace of the work, the culvert may not help to mitigate flooding in the ensuing monsoon.
The Benaulim-Varca road, from Khareband bridge to the Mercado mall plays host to two culverts to facilitate drainage of rain water from the Tolleaband body to the adjoining river Sal. Leave alone increasing the number of culverts on this road stretch for quick drainage of the flood waters, even the water channels connecting these culverts to the adjoining river Sal are not cleaned up to ensure the water flow.
Take note, the western bypass road passing through the Tolleaband water body, which acts as a water catchment area during the monsoons, plays host to over a dozen culverts. Farmers, however, are skeptical over the efficacy of the culverts. “Even assuming rain water passes through these culverts into the main Tolleaband water body, but in the absence of sizeable number of culverts on the Benaulim-Varca road, water will not flow into adjoining river Sal”, remarked a farmer.
He added: “Neither PWD officials nor officials of the Water Resources department have taken into account the back flow factor when there’s back flow of river Sal during the high tide. We had highlighted all these issues in support of our demand for bypass on stilts, but in vain”.
