Who will provide mobile toilets at the Cutbona fishing jetty to meet the sanitation requirements of the thousands of migrants workers employed on fishing vessels?
the goan I network
MARGAO
When The Goan posed this question to the Director of Fisheries Dr Shamila Monteiro, she pushed the buck on the fisheries societies based at the Cutbona fishing jetty. “My office has already written letters to the two fisheries societies operating at the Cutbona fishing jetty to make available the mobile toilets till the 50 toilet block come up,” she said.
While it is now a couple of days since the fisheries office had dispatched the letters to the two societies, the ground reality has not changed at the jetty till date. When The Goan tried calling Fisheries Chairman and MLA Benjamin D’Silva, he was not available for comment.
The Chairman of the other society, Miguel Rodrigues admitted that the fisheries societies are in receipt of the letters from the Fisheries Department asking them to make available the mobile toilets at the jetty. “The fisheries societies are in favour of making available the mobile toilets at the fishing jetty, but the issue has not yet been discussed with the members. We do not say that we will not take up the responsibility of providing sanitation facilities, but we need some time,”
Miguel said.
However, nearly a month into the new fishing season, not a single toilet, permanent or mobile, has come up in and around the Cutbona fishing jetty so far.
When The Goan contacted Velim Sarpanch Melvyn Sanches to shed light on the sanitation arrangements put in place at the Cutbona jetty, he said nothing has changed at the jetty till date. “Not a single toilet, whether permanent or mobile has come up at the jetty. All that the panchayat received till date is a letter from the health department seeking NOCs for the construction of the 50-seater toilet block at the jetty”, he said.
Incidentally, the Velim gram sabha held on July 29 had insisted that the toilets at the Cutbona fishing jetty are the need of the hour to prevent the spread of vector-borne diseases and to avoid public hazards in Cutbona and surrounding villages. Sadly, while the gram sabha had resolved to report to the Deputy Collector, Goa State Pollution Control Board, Director of Health Services to initiate appropriate action for violation of the Health Act, Air and Water Acts and other laws in force, the panchayat is yet to make a forceful plea to these authorities to intervene and get the authorities concerned or associations
to make available the mobile toilets.
When The Goan contacted Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado to explain the delay in constructing the 50-seater toilet block at Cutbona jetty since the last two years, he said he has now accorded top most priority to the issue.
