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MAPUSA
PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar on Wednesday said the State government would be held responsible if there was an epidemic on account of consumption of muddy water supplied through the PWD pipeline, even as he promised to release 15 MLD of water to Mapusa to overcome shortage of supply to the constituency.
“Yes, PWD will be responsible if there is an epidemic after consumption of muddy water supplied through the pipeline,” Pauskar said.
The PWD minister made the statement while addressing the media after holding a meeting with the Mapusa MLA Joshua D’Souza, Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) Chairperson Ryan Braganza, councilors and PWD officials to discuss the acute shortage of water supply in the constituency.
Pauskar said muddy water supply was on account of rise in turbidity of water due to heavy rainfall and promised to appoint consultants to examine why the turbidity has shot up this time around.
“We are getting raw water from Tillari. During the rains the water is channelized through the mountains and brings with it a lot of mud which increases the turbidity of water,” he said.
“The government will appoint consultants to check on the sudden rise in turbidity this year,” he added.
He said the department was taking measures to augment the infrastructure so that there is no repeat of such incidents from next monsoons.
Besides scarcity of water supply in Mapusa, there were several complaints of supply of muddy water in Bardez, particularly in Mapusa and Porvorim.
Pledging to supply 15 MLD of water supply to Mapusa, the PWD minister said the city would not face scarcity of water from Thursday onwards.
“We will ensure that Mapusa gets 15 MLD of supply so that there is no shortage of water to people of Mapusa. We will upgrade the Assonora Treatment Plant to treat an additional 30 MLD of water to take care of future requirements,” Pauskar said.
He also said that once the Porvorim treatment plant comes up, the load on the Assonora plant will reduce.
He further said work on 15 MLD treatment plant at Porvorim costing Rs 23.67 crore was expected to be completed in another 10 months.
Stating that residents of Mapusa faced a lot of problems due to water shortage for the last one month, Mapusa MLA Joshua D’Souza expected all issues relating to water to be resolved after the assurance of the PWD minister.
“The PWD minister has promised the 14 councilors who were present at the meeting that there will be no water issues in Mapusa from Thursday onwards. We are confident we will receive 15 MLD of water,” Joshua
said.
He also said the minister has spelled out various steps his department was taking to augment and ensure proper water supply in
future.
