Madgavkars keep fingers crossed, hope SIDCGL, PWD have undertaken the job to plug lines
MARGAO
The Sewerage Infrastructure Development Corporation of Goa Ltd (SIDCGL) is rushing with pending sewerage works along the Margao flyover road before the onset of monsoon.
Reason: Underground sewerage works cannot be executed during the monsoons and that the SIDCGL or the PWD will have to wait till the monsoons to retreat to resume sewerage works around November-December.
What about the existing underground sewerage line? Is the line free from rain water infiltration? Has the line undergone any testing post-monsoons till date to clear the blockages, if any? And, will the sewage chambers no longer resemble as water fountains when monsoon finally sets in and the city is hit by a heavy downpour in a month from now?
Well, these and other questions remain unanswered as Madgavkars only hope that both the SIDCGL and the PWD have carried out their job to plug rain water infiltrations into the underground sewerage line post-monsoons.
In the past, the SIDCGL and the PWD were involved in a blame game, with the SIDCGL pushing the buck on the PWD over the maintenance of the underground sewerage line. The PWD, on the other hand, had insisted that the SIDCGL had never tested the line before it was handed over to the department for the maintenance.
In fact, a former senior PWD official had been categorical in saying that the PWD’s role in the maintenance of the underground line comes into play when the chambers are choked with debris. “Here is a case wherein rain water infiltration has been rampant, suggesting that the underground line needs urgent testing to ascertain the infiltration points,” remarked the former PWD official.
Incidentally, ex-PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral had stressed on the need to undertake the work of testing of the underground line after large scale infiltration of the rain water during the last monsoons. After Cabral’s exit, the fate of the proposal to rope in an agency to find out the infiltration points and plug the same remains unknown.
In fact, overflowing sewage chambers during the monsoons have become an annual feature in the commercial capital with a number of chambers resembling sewage mixed with rain water, posing health hazard to the inhabitants.
Sadly, neither the government nor the Powers that be controlling the city have displayed any urgency in plugging the rain water infiltration and cap the threat of health hazard posed by the overflowing sewage chambers.
NGO raises accountability in sewerage infra
MARGAO: Margao-based NGO Shadow Council of Margao has questioned whether anyone is bothered to ensure quality work when crores of rupees from the public exchequer goes into various tenders for laying of sewerage network lines.
SCM convenor Savio Coutinho told The Goan on Sunday that the SCM has been consistently pointing out to the substandard works executed by the sewerage department contractors over the years. “Faulty work at the time of execution has been made known to the department engineers on several occasions. Video evidence has also been shown to this effect, but for very obvious reasons, the department has to remain mute to complaints as these contractors have taken care of the “bosses” in advance,” Coutinho charged.
He said the outcome of the substandard works executed results into seepage of outside soil into the network lines, and eventually brings about sewage fountains at dozens of locations all over the town.
Just as the High Court is hearing the Saipem lake pollution petition, Coutinho pointed out that citizens would appreciate if the court orders any inquiry into the reasons for the manhole chambers turning into sewage fountains, as eventually, even if the entire city is connected to the sewerage network, a new source of pollution will have to be dealt with in future – the overflowing manhole chambers.
