MARGAO
This isn’t a water fountain in a botanical garden, but an overflowing sewage manhole at the Salpem lake, Navelim adjoining the western bypass underpass, metres away from the Sirvodem Sewage Treatment Plant.
PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral may say the underground sewage project in Navelim is still not commissioned and hence it is but natural that rain water has entered the underground line and coming out of the sewage manholes.
In fact, the overflowing sewage manhole at the Salpem lake is not the only manhole overflowing in Navelim. A couple of sewage manholes have been found overflowing along the Nagmodem-STP plant road during the rains.
In neighbouring Margao, however, sewage manholes continue to overflow with rains not subsiding till date, discharging rain water mixed with sewage.
The sewage manhole on the National Highway 66 at Colmorod bears testimony to the extent and severity of the sewage issue facing the commercial capital. The sewage chamber has not stopped overflowing till date, with no respite from the heavy rains.
The situation is no different on the pavement of the Margao Municipal building. While a sewage chamber has been overflowing since the day heavy rains hit the State, a second chamber, adjoining the first one, is now overflowing, discharging raw sewage on the pavement.
While the Margao Municipal officials have attributed the problem to back water flow, apparently due to blockage in the underground line, questions are being raised why the MMC has not deployed its manpower to clear the sewage coming out of the chamber onto the pavement.
