MARGAO
The Sewerage & Infrastructure Development Corporation of Goa Ltd (SIDCGL) is racing against time to lay the underground line for the discharge of treated sewage from the Colva Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) into the river Sal.
The corporation, however, has a bigger task at hand “ how to get the business establishments and the villagers of Colva to connect their premises to the sewerage project?
For, it’s now months since the authorities had issued an appeal to the people of Colva to apply with the PWD in the prescribed forms to connect their establishments and households to the underground sewerage line. And, the response is there for all to see. If officials are to be believed, the PWD and the corporation have received a lukewarm response from Colvenkars to date, prompting the department to depute senior officials for the Colva gram sabha to explain the salient features of the sewerage scheme.
An official told The Goan that the PWD has received hardly any applications for sewerage connections to date. In fact, only a handful of applications for sewerage connections have been received by the department to date.
“The exercise to get the people to apply for the sewerage has failed to elicit the desired response from the business establishments and households so far. We will soon evolve a solution to the problem”, remarked an official.
The official added: “We indeed face a task at hand to make the people, including the business community, apply for the sewerage connections. We have seen in Margao how the people shy away from taking the sewerage connections as a result of which the Margao sewerage project remains underutilized”.
A senior official, however, sees a ray of hope in getting the business establishments to connect their premises to the sewerage project, courtesy of the High Court. Unlike Margao, with the Colva sewerage issue under the High Court scanner, and the Court appointing Tourism Director as the nodal officer to coordinate amongst the departments implementing the sewerage project, officials say the project may take off after its commissioning.
“With the Tourism Director being appointed as a nodal officer by the High Court, the director will be asked to call for a meeting with the hoteliers and tourism stakeholders doing business in the Colva village. Once, we get the business establishments to connect to the project, a major part of the problem will be resolved with one stroke”, the official said.
The official added: “As far as the individual households are concerned, the PWD will spread awareness amongst the villagers. Our officials had attended the recently-held gram sabha to educate the people on the project”.
The Colva Civic and Consumer Forum headed by social activist Judith Almeida had gone to court around a decade ago drawing its attention to the contamination of the Colva creek by the sewage and wastewater discharged from the business establishments, finally finding its way into the creek.
Work on the 7.5 MLD Colva sewerage project had got underway during the tenure of former MLA Caitu Silva after the foundation stone was laid by then chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar.
Sewarage corp in a rush to lay line connecting Colva STP to river Sal
MARGAO:
Even as the Colva sewerage project is awaiting commissioning for want of a mechanism for the disposal of the treated waste, the Sewerage & Infrastructure Corporation of Goa is rushing with the work of laying the underground line connecting the Colva STP to the river Sal for the discharge of treated sewage water to complete the work by May 15.
With the High Court staying the stop-work order issued by the Benaulim Panchayat, officials pointed out that the South Goa District Collector has granted permission for the ongoing work up to May 15, adding that the corporation is rushing with the work to complete the same within the deadline.
Officials pointed out that the original plan was to discharge the treated sewage into the Arabian sea, but the plan was shelved after tourism stakeholders raised concern that tourists may skip the world-famous beach if the treated sewage water is discharged into the sea.
The corporation later came up with the proposal to discharge the treated sewage water into river Sal, which evoked strong opposition from residents of Benaulim, as they questioned the discharge of the treated sewage water into the river instead of putting it for reuse.
Even as the High Court has served a contempt notice on Benaulim Sarpanch Vencila Fernandes over the stop-work order issued by the Benaulim panchayat to stop the sewerage line, the High Court has directed the sewerage corporation to file a status report on the Colva sewerage project on June 20, while observing that work on the project cannot ordinarily be stopped based upon some apprehensions that are now being expressed at a stage where the Colva sewerage project is considerably advanced.
