MARGAO
Sewerage Infrastructure Development Corporation of Goa Ltd’s (SIDCGL) power load enhancement request for the 7.5MLD Colva Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) has finally found favour with the Power Department.
Technically speaking, Power Department’s approval for load enhancement sanction has paved the way for the commissioning of the long-delayed STP and release of sewerage connections to the commercial establishments and households in the tourist village.
Officials of the SIDCGL and PWD, Sewerage officials, however, may have to grapple with a million dollar question “ How to get all the commercial establishments and households dotting the tourist village to connect their premises to the sewerage treatment plant.
An answer to this contentious issue may not be encouraging for the simple reason that hardly a couple of commercial establishments and households have applied for sewerage connections till date when the Colva STP has a capacity to treat 7.5MLD sewage.
Inquiries by The Goan have revealed that both SIDCGL as well as the PWD, Sewerage are agencies that will be releasing sewerage connections “ SIDCGL for households and PWD for commercial establishments. An official told The Goan that the commissioning of the STP will only help to treat the sewage generated by the establishments and households along the beach belt and not the entire village since a lot work is required to be executed to bring the entire village under the sewerage network.
Further inquiries with the SIDCGL officials have revealed that the Corporation has received just 15-20 applications for sewerage connections from households till date.
Comparatively, a number of commercial establishments, comprising of hotels and restaurants, mostly dotting along the beach belt, had applied for sewerage connections in recent months. While a PWD engineer could not disclose the number of commercial establishments that have applied for sewerage connections, it was pointed out that the actual release of sewerage connections will depend on ground factors such as road cutting for connecting the premises to the underground line. “It may take some time for the PWD, Sewerage to connect the establishments to the sewerage underground line since it involves road cutting to connect the line to the establishments,” he added.
A hotel stakeholder told The Goan on Sunday that the hoteliers and restaurant owners were all willing to connect their establishments to the underground sewerage line, but their requests for release of connections had gone abegging as the Colva STP was not ready for commissioning. “Every time, the matter had come up for hearing before the High Court, the authorities had sought to blame the tourism stakeholders and portray a picture that the establishments are not keen to obtain the sewerage connections. Our applications have been pending with the PWD, Sewerage for the last several months. We only hope the department now releases the sewerage connections now that the STP is commissioned,” remarked an hotelier.
Connectivity conundrum: Authorities struggle to convince public
Officials of the SIDCGL and the PWD, Sewerage have pointed out that they had conducted many awareness drives in Colva village, including presentations at the gram sabhas and outside to make the people understand the importance of the sewerage project for the tourist village.
They, however, lamented that despite their best efforts, the response for the sewerage connections from the public has been lukewarm. The officials expect the commercial establishments, including the hotels, restaurants, etc on the beach belt to get their premises immediately connected to the plant. For, some of the commercial establishments had come under the scanner of the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), mandating them to connect their units to the STP.
Officials, however, seemed to have run out of ideas on how to get the individual households connect their premises to the STP when attempts to convince them to apply for the connections have come a cropper.
Calls for audit of sewerage line before releasing connections
MARGAO: Colva-based social activist Judith Almeida has cautioned the PWD as well as the SIDCGL not to rush with the release of sewerage connections without an audit of the underground sewerage line.
Given that local Colva residents had raised issues concerning the pumping stations that overflowed during the monsoons, Judith feared that commissioning the plant and releasing the connections without an audit may create problems for the local residents.
“I am happy that the long-delayed sewerage plant will be finally commissioned, but I want to caution both the PWD and the SIDCGL not to rush with the commissioning before conducting an audit. Let officials of these two agencies check the underground line and the pumping stations to ensure that sewage from the line does not flow in the open once commissioned,” she added.
Judith recalled that she had knocked the doors of the High Court in the year 2011 with the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) for action after the commercial establishments were found discharging their sewage and waste water into the open before the water found its way into the Colva creek, contaminating the water body. “After umpteen numbers of hearings on the matter, the government had finally promised the High Court to put in place a sewerage network at Colva to take care of sewage issues,” she said.
