Migrant workers unloading fishing nets from the vessels anchored at the River Sal. Captured by : Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
Curtains are finally set to come down on the fishing season five days from now with the ban on fishing scheduled to come into force from June 1.
Most of the fishing vessels operating from the Cutbona fishing jetty, Goa’s largest fishing hub, lay anchored at the jetty in the river Sal. A couple of fishing vessels, which have ventured out in the sea for the last fishing trip of the season, are all expected to return at the jetty by June 1.
A visit to the Cutbona jetty revealed that boat owners have started transporting the fishing nets into waiting vehicles to their homes or godowns. That’s not all. Hordes of migrant labourers have started leaving the jetty to return back home to their native states. Trains heading to the country’s east, the states of Jharkhand and Odisha are packed with the migrant crew employed on the fishing vessels.
For the mechanized boat owners operating from the Cutbona fishing jetty, however, it’s yet another fishing season that will end by the weekend, but problems plaguing the jetty seemed far from over.
Barring the hot mixing of the Cutbona fishing jetty road, giving much relief to the fishing vessels transporting fish from the jetty, there’s absolutely no change on the ground vis-Ã -vis the ills plaguing the jetty and the mechanized fishing industry.
River Sal mouth
Curtains will come down on yet another fishing season, but construction of a training wall at the mouth of river Sal is yet to see light of the day. Notwithstanding promises and assurances by successive Fisheries Ministers and Directors heading the Fisheries department, the training wall mooted at the river Sal mouth to do away with the hostile navigation issues for the mechanized fishing industry is still a far cry.
That’s not all. The fate of the break water facility proposed by the Cutbona Boat Owners Union in the Arabian sea too remains unknown. Infrastructure and logistic issues plaguing the mechanized fishing vessels operating from Cutbona jetty have been craving for attention over the years, but in vain.
At first, the training wall project had hit a block after Cavelossim-based activists challenged the project on a host of issues, including failure to prepare an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report.
While the NGT upheld the NGO’s stand that no EIA report was prepared before executing the work, the fate of the EIA is mired in mystery till date, as a result of which work on the training wall at the river mouth is yet to take shape till date.
Take note, a number of fishing vessels had turned into scrap after running aground at the sand bar, but a solution seemed still not forthcoming from the government.
New fishing jetty
Smiles had lit the faces of the mechanized boat owners when the government had around a decade ago proposed to execute an additional jetty at Cutbona, promising to augment berthing and loading and unloading facilities at Goa’s largest jetty.
It’s now over half-a-decade since the additional fishing jetty is in place, but the mechanized boat owners claim neither is the new jetty stretch inaugurated nor it is put into effective use. Resultantly, the additional jetty constructed at a huge cost has literally become a dumping ground.
In fact, a visit to the Cutbona jetty has revealed that the new additional jetty plays host to dingy, storage of fishing nets, fish crates etc. “The boat owners have been insisting on the inauguration of the new jetty and putting the same to effective use, but in vain. Putting the additional jetty for effective use could have resolved the issue of space constraints at the Cutbona fishing jetty”, Tari lamented.
Former Cutbona Boat Owners Union president Cypriano Cardozo has echoed similar sentiments. “If you visit the new additional jetty, you will come across scrap items dumped on the jetty. The illumination installed at the new jetty has been crumbling, but no one seemed interested to stem the rot", Cardozo rued.
Sanitation
Can the tall claims made by successive governments to rejuvenate the River Sal be achieved on the ground without tackling the sanitation issues plaguing the Cutbona fishing jetty?
For, this question assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of the fact that the Cutbona fishing jetty plays host to thousands of migrant crew employed on the fleet of fishing vessels operating at the jetty.
Consider this. A lone Sulabh toilet block located at the Fisheries complex was all the sanitation facility provided for the migrant crew at the Cutbona jetty, forcing the workers to answer nature's call in the adjoining fields. To tide over the grave issue, a 50-seater toilet block was proposed at the Fisheries complex around a decade ago, but the block is yet to see light of the day over the issue of Sewage treatment plant.
A couple of eco toilets made their presence felt at the fisheries complex over a year ago, but the toilets were not put to use for reasons best known to the authorities. Some months ago, Director of Fisheries Dr Shamila Monteiro had claimed that the eco toilet have been commissioned at the jetty, but boat owners have not only begged to differ, but questioned whether a couple of eco-toilets would cater to the thousands of migrant workers employed on the fishing vessels operating from Cutbona.
Says former Cutbona Boat Owners Union president, Savio D’Silva: “Is a lone Sulabh toilet or a couple of eco-toilets, a solution to the sanitation issues facing the Cutbona jetty. This question needs to be sincerely answered by the Fisheries department. The boat owners are tired and exhausted in demanding basic amenities at the jetty”.
