THE GOAN NETWORK
MAPUSA:
At a time when locals have been yearning for proper water supply, a lot of water is being wasted due to leakages in pipelines. There are at least half a dozen of spots in Mapusa where water has been leaking from broken pipelines but the PWD men have failed to attend to them.
Incidentally, most of the leakages are on the main city roads obvious to everyone using the thoroughfare.
For almost two weeks, water has been leaking from a pipeline on the main State highway just opposite the Duler football ground. A little ahead, on the same stretch, there is another leakage on the slope near the zonal agriculture office.
Yet another leakage was reported in the middle of the main road junction opposite the Dattawadi crematorium while a fourth leak was spotted near the Kalangutkar nursing home in Angod, Mapusa.
For the last two days, water has been flowing down the Tar Bridge due to leakage in the water pipeline passing over the bridge.
Similarly, water has been going down the drain due to a leakage by the side of the one-way street just opposite the Suraj book stall.
For reasons best known to them, PWD officials turn a blind eye to leakages so much so that even written complaints go unheeded.
“We have lodged a written complaint of the water leakage on the main road near the Dattawadi crematorium two days ago but so far no one has attended to it,” said Bhai Pandit of Mapusa.
A senior PWD engineer informed The Goan that he tried to put a system in place in Bardez during the Tillari canal breach and one of the suggestions was to attend to leakages.
“I told them there are several leakages which we should attend on priority. If we attend to 10 leakages a day at least we will be able to serve the people better. But my staff is not cooperative. If I say anything they run to the politicians. Before I could reach the office I get a call,” the senior official said in exasperation.
Mapusa PWD, Assistant Engineer, Subhash Belgaonkar informed that his staff was on the job and the leakages would soon be plugged.
“We are attending to the problem. We will ensure that the pipelines are repaired and the leakages are plugged on priority,” Belgaonkar said.
It may be recalled a fortnight back Bardez and parts of Bicholim faced severe water shortage due to breach in Tillari canal. Although the situation is yet to be normalised, PWD has managed to restore controlled supply of water to different parts of the taluka.
