MARGAO
Can these two senior lady officers fix the sanitation issue at the Cutbona “ the home for over 2000 migrant workers employed on the fishing vessels operating from the jetty?
This question assumes significance as World Toilet Day is observed on November 19. Leave alone putting the promised 50-seater toilet block and the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in place, even the mobile toilets proposed by the Fisheries Department are not seen.
Of these two women officers, one is an IAS officer, Jyoti Kumari, holding charge as Deputy Collector, Margao, and Sub-divisional Magistrate, and the other is the Fisheries Director Dr Shamila Monteiro, who has been presiding over the affairs of the Fisheries Department for a long time now.
The Fisheries Director is aware of the ground reality in and around the Cutbona fishing jetty on the sanitation front, with the lone Sulabh toilet block and two eco-toilets grossly inadequate to meet the sanitation requirement of thousands of migrant crew.
On the other hand, Deputy Collector Margao Jyoti Kumari has taken charge of the post only recently, but the office she is heading is not stranger to the issue at hand.
Kumari’s predecessors in the past had issued orders to the Fisheries as well as health officials to tone up the sanitation system at Cutbona, but in vain.
The sanitation issue has not been fixed for years now despite the issue being highlighted by local villagers, NGOs and the village panchayat body.
Hopes that at least mobile toilets, if not for the 50-seater toilet block, will take shape at the Cutbona fishing jetty this season have been dashed. It’s now four months since the new fishing season began on August 1, but not a single toilet has been added to the sanitation facility.
Says Goacan coordinator, Roland Martins: “The NGO has now written to the Margao SDM, Jyoti Kumari, to do the needful by at least installing mobile toilets at the jetty before World Toilet Day on November 19. We have made a letter to the SDM so that the authorities tackle the threat posed to the health and sanitation of the fish workers as well as the villagers of Velim and the neighbouring areas.”
He further pointed out that the absence of mobile toilets is only adding to the burden of the staff of the Balli PHC who are already tasked with work related to Covid. If vector-borne diseases and water-borne diseases affect the area the situation will simply go out of hand.
Take note the Fisheries Director had issued a letter to the fisheries associations to set up mobile toilets, but questions remain unanswered why the Department has pushed the buck on the latter when the government is the owner of the jetty.
