AGNELO PEREIRA
MAPUSA
The sound of water sprouting from the aerator gives an impression that everything is running smoothly at the Assonora water treatment plant. The security at the gate and the few staff ambling up and down the sprawling area show no sign of anxiety either.
With the water crisis becoming a talking point in Bardez, a group of journos decided to get first-hand information at the water treatment plant.
The first sign of stress came when it was discovered that the Assistant Engineer was functioning as the Junior Engineer in the plant. Clearly staffing problem?
Junior Engineer, Shashikant Pednekar has been recently promoted to AE but his posting at the plant remains as JE. This clearly indicates that the plant has been functioning without an AE for quite some time.
The JE and the Technical Assistant Vijayanand Raut present in the plant went about their job briefing us and trying to answer the queries thrown at them as best as they could. We were also taken around the 50 mld plant showing the different aspects of the filteration process.
There was a lot of rust and thick vegetation all around the water storage tanks and other infra structures in the plant, but the staff was quick to dismiss the rust on account of high chlorination and the vegetation as an annual rigour which is done away with after the monsoon.
The vroom sound of the motor took us to the building housing four motors at the 30 mld plant.
“From the time the 50 mld plant stopped functioning we are forced to operate all the four motors in this plant so that we can pump enough water,” an official said.
For the last eight days the motors have been functioning for 24 hours so wasn’t that a cause for concern? What if one or two of the motors break down like the previous ones?
The JE assured that there was no possibility of such an incident happening although he did not rule out a rare possibility due to an electrical snag. The normal routine was to run the plant with two motors and two others remain as a backup.
After spending almost an hour at the plant the drift we got was things were not so bad but was there more that missed our eyes?
