the goan I network
MARGAO
Who’s responsible for the rampant wastage of water due to the leakage in the PWD water pipelines?
As water flows into the road side drains for want of repairs, there’s a blame game between the PWD and the district authorities over the water wastage. While the job of repairing the damaged pipeline rests with the PWD, officials, however, point accusing fingers at the district authorities for the huge delay in giving the green signal to take up repair works by granting the road digging permission.
Says a senior PWD officer, in-charge of water supply: “Most of the water leakages along the roads in Margao and Salcete countryside have been awaiting repairs for want of road digging permission. We are totally helpless. There’s a ban on road digging imposed by an order of the district Collector. No road can be dug up without the nod from the Collectorate,” the PWD official claimed.
Water from an underground pipeline has been gushing out on the Abade Faria road near Sal Temple for over a month, but the authorities are yet to plug the leakage. When The Goan called up a senior PWD officer to find out the delay in attending to the damaged pipeline, it was pointed out that the PWD had approached the district Collectorate over a month to grant permission for road digging, but in vain.
“The damaged pipeline can be repaired only by digging the road, but the PWD has not received the permission for road digging,” he added.
Incidentally, a senior PWD official recalled how the outgoing district Collector had hauled him up for carrying out road digging at Pajifond when local residents had complained of contamination of drinking water by an underground sewage line. “Since it was an emergency work, I had kept the district authorities informed about the road digging since sewage water had mixed with the underground water pipeline. When the media painted a wrong picture of the road digging, the Collector issued me a memo seeking explanation over the road digging when we had acted in public interest to stop water contamination,” he added.
Water wastage has been reported near the Meenakshi restaurant in the city here for over a month now, but PWD officials have told local residents and ward councillor Damu Naik that the repair work has been pending for want of road digging permission.
PWD officials in the know pointed out that water leakage instances are galore not only in Margao, but in the villages as well and the ground reality is unlikely to change for the better till the ban on road digging is lifted by the district Collectorate.
Interestingly, PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar had recently cried foul over the huge wastage of PWD water, but PWD officials, say the government should fine tune the system wherein repair work is allowed during the ban period in times of emergencies.
