The Smart City project facelifting works going on in the capital city Panaji for the past two years have given rise to dust pollution and the citizens are suffering from upper respiratory tract illnesses, asthma and dust allergies. The digging as well as dust has impacted many businesses too, and some have shut their restaurants and kiosks for over a year now.
Health and businesses both are crucial lifelines and the dust has hampered both. Asthma, allergy and chest specialist Dr Hardatt Karande admits that he has been witnessing higher incidences of asthma and COPD exacerbations, nasal and eye allergies, especially in kids and elderly people.
“Due to high levels of particulate matter in air due to ongoing works, we see worsening of symptoms of asthma and COPD patients, and there are higher incidences of allergic rhinitis,” stated Dr Karande, who practices at St Inez.
Recalling the days of the mining boom, heritage activist Sanjeev V Sardesai shares, “In the 1990s and the 2000 the mining industry led to disappearance of the beautiful greenery, of the Goan hinterlands, from the foliage of the trees and turned them brown for decades… so did the colour of the lungs! Today this cancer of inefficiency and corruption had led to the heritage city of Panaji to face a similar fate. Whoever decided to involve the tunnelling machines in soft soil, which dug more than needed and led the roads to collapse is a matter for investigation. The fate of ‘brown lungs’ is destined for Panjimites, thanks to ‘efficient Smart City planners.”
Shanti Gujnal, a salesgirl working and living in the same vicinity, admitted that most of the time is wasted in cleaning the dust entering the shop and her home. “All members in my family are suffering from dust allergies and continuously coughing. Our visits to the doctors have increased too during the past one-and-a-half years, making our pockets empty before the end of the month.”
“We had to keep our shops shut for months and pay salaries to our employees as otherwise they would be jobless. I used to call our regular customers home, to show them dresses as my showrooms were closed for want of a road to enter them. The road and footpath in front of our stores was dug open and kept open for months and customers could not even step in. We faced a lot of inconvenience for almost two years and our woes have still not ended. Apart from parking the vehicles, there was no entry for cars to even enter on this road; both ends were closed, and the entire road had been dug up. Now cars can enter but work is still going on, footpaths are yet to be reconstructed. I have seen animals as well as humans, falling in the pits and getting injured during the rains,” complained the owner of twin apparel showrooms, ‘Maya’ and ‘Samhita’ at St Inez.
A shopkeeper selling biscuits and other eatables recalled that it has been over 18 months that his business has seen a setback. “People no longer wait to take a puff. And we have to wipe the dust from our products before handing them over to our customers. Biscuits, chocolates, soft-drinks “ all accumulate dust on them, and it is unfair to offer dusty eatables to people. So we have kept a cloth handy to wipe our products,” said the owner of Sai store, on condition of anonymity.
A tiny restaurant ‘Khanaval’ had to bring down shutters and shift to another location, when the road in front of it was dug and kept open for many months. The bar and restaurant adjacent to it was also kept shut for a year and has still not opened. “We lost business. Ours was a regular place for lunch take-overs by office goers. They stopped coming as the road in front of our eatery was dug and kept in that position for months, so we were forced to shut down as no customer could step or sit and eat in the dusty atmosphere,” shared the owner.
A fruit vendor who sits under a tree at the Caculo Mall junction said his chest developed an infection, and had to be on treatment because of the swallowed dust. So were the auto rickshaw drivers, who have gradually stopped waiting for the customers. It is the smaller businesses that have suffered more. Vegetable, newspaper and milk vendors, bread-omelette gaddas, sugarcane juice sellers have moved out of the city and sell on the outskirts or highways. A woman vendor running a roadside vada-pao gadda admitted that the customers have reduced sizably and it has impacted her business. ‘People now do not stop on the road for a long time, and eat. They are in a hurry to walk off to their homes, offices, and not loiter on the footpath,” she shared.
As paediatric super-specialist and neonatal surgeon Dr Sanjay Khope observes, “The authorities have unplanned attacks on the peaceful city under the pretext of smart development. This has definitely led to unthinkable pollution and hardships on the inhabitants that would have long term consequences on life of the residents already battered by noise pollution and situations that have already spoiled the beauty of our State. No matter what pollution has done the respiratory tract is under attack of dust pollution and additional problems they face due to water logging during rains. None of these developments have changed anything but added distress of all sorts including psychological effects in affected areas. Frequent respiratory problems are commonly seen by all medical facilities in Panaji and this also has affected immunity and monetary burdens on the community which has never been considered important by the authorities. Planning should have been systematic and time bound so that development if at all would have benefited the public whose money has been spent."
