The PWD team working to release water from the main pipeline to Highland villas in Porvorim in the presence of a police team.
PORVORIM
In an unusual development, residents of two villages in Porvorim constituency have sparred over the release of water supply to their houses.
According to reports, residents of 70 Highland villas in Salvador do Mundo were up in arms against the PWD for failing to release water to their colony since the last five years.
The Association of Highland Villas then met Chief Minister Pramod Sawant last year to seek his intervention in the matter.
Association members told the chief minister that in the absence of a water pipeline, they had been forced to hiring 15 -16 water tankers everyday to meet their water requirement.
They, however, claimed that water supplied through these tankers was dirty and unfit for consumption, leading many people, especially senior citizens in the colony to fall ill after consuming this tanker water. They demanded a separate pipeline for their colony.
Responding to their grievances, Sawant directed the PWD to release water to the residents of Highland villas from the existing pipeline.
The PWD began work to tap the main pipeline, but this activity has angered residents in neighbouring Coelhowaddo in Penha da Franca.
“We have been residing in Coelhowaddo for several years and we get water only on alternate days and that too, in limited quantity,” said a resident Vanita Surlikar.
“We also get water through water tankers to meet our water needs. How can Chief Minister Pramod Sawant direct the PWD to release the water to Highland villas from the main pipeline when we are already suffering from water shortage,” asked Surlikar.
She feared that if water is released to the 70 Highland villas from the existing pipeline, houses in Coelhowaddo would not receive any water.
“It was duty of the builders of Highland villas to make water arrangements through bore wells or other means etc. prior to construction of the 70 villas.”
“The Salvador do Mundo panchayat should have laid conditions for water supply before issuing a construction license to the builders of Highland villas. Providing water supply to the 70 Highland villas from the existing pipeline is unfair and unjust,” Surlikar added.
