MARGAO
A meeting called to ascertain the status of the Margao sewerage scheme has revealed that while the government has pumped in huge funds to lay the underground sewage line, citizens have not been forthcoming to the house connections.
Sewerage Corporation officials have further informed that ongoing work on the North main line is expected to be completed by December this year, pointing out that work is presently underway at Comba and Khareband area.
In fact, while work on the underground sewage line is completed in all respects in many wards of the Margao Municipal Council, the project has not been put to optimum use for want of people going for the house connections.
At the review meeting chaired by Margao MLA and Opposition Leader Digambar Kamat on Tuesday with officials of the Sewerage Corporation, it has now been decided to appoint nodal officers in the wards to expedite the house connections by creating awareness amongst the households.
After the meeting, Kamat said that house connections has not kept pace with the plan drawn up by the sewerage corporation and the PWD till date. “Though the project is implemented in some of the wards, the households has not been forthcoming to take the connections. We have now decided to appoint nodal officers in these wards to ensure that the people go for the house connections,” he said.
The Margao MLA further said that deadlines have been issued to the officials to ensure that the households are connected to the sewerage line within a time frame. “Crores of rupees of public money has been spent on the sewerage project. We appeal to the people to go for the house connections at the earliest,” he said, while stressing on the need to create awareness amongst the apartment owners, housing societies and individual households.
Incidentally, though the sewerage line has been laid and completed in many wards, the two state-of-the-art sewage treatment plants commissioned at Sirvodem does not receive the required sewage on a daily basis. In fact, the two sewage plants have been lying underutilised for want of sewage. The two plants were commissioned around four years ago.
Managing Director, Goa Sewerage Corporation Arvind Karmali, AE, Sewerage Prakash Pai, besides Margao Municipal Vice-Chairperson Deepali Sawal, councillors Dada Naik, Damu Shirodkar, Varak and others attended the meeting.
