MARGAO
When PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral descended on the Margao Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) complex on November 5 to find out the status of the treatment plants, an official explained both the STPs are operating below their capacity.
The official further pointed out that while the 20MLD plant is treating just 6MLD sewage and the 6.75MLD plant less than 2MLD sewage before realisation dawned on the PWD Minister that the two STPs run to their full capacity only during the monsoons. Cabral was further told that fresh rainwater enters the sewage line during the monsoons, throwing up a question of whether the underground sewerage network in place conforms to the laid down standards or has developed defects even before its full commissioning.
How Nilesh Cabral will go about the job of rectifying the defects in the underground line remains unclear. And, no official, be it from the Sewerage Infrastructure Development Corporation of Goa or the PWD is willing to shed light on the extent of the water seepage inside the line “ whether the freshwater enters the line through the chambers or at the joints.
Senior PWD officials in private hoped the PWD Minister and the government would order a probe into the underground sewage line, more so when crores of rupees have gone into the laying of the sewage network.
“The Minister will mostly probably instruct the PWD looking after the sewage section to look after the maintenance. But, no one is willing to go into the construction of the underground network when the government has spent crores of rupees,” remarked a PWD official.
He added: “The government agencies responsible for laying the underground network need to be held accountable for the overflowing chambers and rainwater entering the underground line. The PWD has not laid the sewage line, but these other agencies have. Just because the PWD is looking after the sewage maintenance, the government should not dump the work on the department, leaving the agencies scot-free”.
Another PWD official has demanded to know the steps initiated by the SIDCGL officials against the contractors responsible for laying the line after dozens of the sewage chambers dotting the commercial capital resembled water fountains. “The sewerage projects executed in the commercial capital run into crores of rupees. The SIDCGL officials should explain whether the agency has released the performance guarantee of the contractors. If not, why is the agency not using the performance guarantee to repair the underground line?” the official pointed out.
A senior SIDCGL official is believed to have pointed out to the PWD Minister that defects to the line, if any, will be rectified. Questions, however, remain unanswered “ who will rectify the defects in the underground line, the same agency executing the projects or an independent group of experts, not only to rectify the line but fix responsibility and accountability in the execution of the job?
Sources have further pointed out that the PWD Minister should find out whether the executing agencies have returned the performance guarantees of the contractors, more so when the PWD officials in the past had insisted on rectification of the underground line through the same contractors before releasing the performance guarantee.
“Those who have executed the job should be made to foot the bill to rectify the underground network."
'Robot not meant to check defect in underground line'
MARGAO
Officials of the PWD have welcomed the robot to clean up the clogged underground sewage chambers handed over to the department by ONGC as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
PWD officials, however, in private made it amply clear that the robot is not meant to check the defects, if any, in the underground sewage line, pointing out that the robot will come in handy to clean up clogged chambers and the responsibility of removing the defects in the line rests with the agencies and the contractors roped in to execute the work.
“No one should be under the impression that the robot is meant to check the defects in the underground line. Let the robot do its work to remove the obstruction at the sewage chamber,” a PWD official said while saying the underground line cannot be checked and tested with the line.
Margao STPs under-utilised, but questions stare at PWD
MARGAO
Margao plays host to two Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) at the Sirvodem STP complex, but both are grossly under-utilised for want of sewage.
When then chief minister late Manohar Parrikar inaugurated the two STPs “ the 20MLD and the 6.75MLD in around 2017, PWD officials went to the town saying the sewage issues plaguing the commercial capital will be finally over.
Five years down the lane, a host of questions stare at officials of the PWD and Sewerage Infrastructure Development Corporation of Goa (SIDCG). One, why is sewage still flowing in the river Sal when the state-of-the-art STPs and the underground sewage network are in place? Why are the plants grossly underutilised, so much so their operations reach their capacity only during the monsoons? Who is responsible for turning these STPs and the sewage project into White Elephant? What are the reasons behind the failure of the agencies to convince the citizens to go for the sewerage connections when officials and politicians had prepared a road map to connect the city to the network?
