MARGAO
Agitation by Benaulim villagers over plans to discharge treated sewage water into the river Sal has thrown up a question or two “ why is there no mechanism in place to utilise the millions of litres of sewage water treated by the state-of-the-art sewage treatment plants?
If sources are to be believed, millions of litres of treated sewage water is being released into the rivers for want of a system to reuse the water for industry, gardening and for the purpose of sanitation, to flush toilets, beginning with the government buildings.
Take the case of the two state-of-the-art sewerage treatment plants at Sirvodem-Margao. In the absence of any system in place to reuse the treated sewage water, like in the advanced countries, it is being released into the river Sal.
That the government authorities has no plans to utilise the treated sewage water became evident when the Sewerage and Infrastructure Development Corporation of Goa had drawn up the initial plans to release the treated sewage water from the Colva Sewage treatment plant, not yet commissioned, into the Arabian Sea.
Sources pointed out that the Corporation was forced to axe the plan after the tourism stakeholders and then MLA Churchill Alemao opposed the move on grounds that any incident of untreated sewage water released into the sea will devastate the iconic Colva beach and tourism along Salcete coastal belt.
A change in political guard in Benaulim in the 2022 Assembly polls brought new ideas to the fore, with incumbent Aam Aadmi Party MLA Venzy Viegas mooting the idea of putting the treated sewage water to use by the industry. In fact, Venzy has proposed to the Sewerage Corporation to build a mega tank at the Colva sewerage plant to store the treated sewage water before the same is supplied to the industry and the tourism stakeholders for gardening.
The proposal, sources said, has not found favour with the sewerage officials on the premise there are no logistics in place via pipelines to the industry, with an official ruling out the possibility of supplying the treated water to the industry for treatment.
Says Venzy: “I have submitted my proposal to the Sewerage Corporation officials earlier this week. I hope they would call me for discussions on the issue of reusing the treated sewage water instead of releasing the same into the river Sal.”
Social activist Royla Fernandes echoed similar sentiments. Reminding that water is a scare resource, Royla demanded to know why can’t the authorities reuse the treated sewage water for gardening and for flushing toilets in government buildings. “We have to make a beginning. The treated water is being put to use in the advanced countries. We could have made proper use of the treated sewage water by supplying the same to the industry,” she added.
Commissioning of the 7.5 MLD Colva sewage treatment plant is on hold over the question of the discharge of the treated sewage water. While work on the plant is almost complete and the Corporation laying the underground sewage network, officials say commissioning of the Colva STP now hangs in balance over the question of discharge of treated sewage water.
