Salpem lake cleanup: No positive change on ground despite court's intervention

Achhe din is yet to reflect on the ground, with both sewage and wastewater along with plastic seemingly flowing into the stormwater nullah unabated, notwithstanding the affidavits and status reports filed by the government agencies, including the Margao Municipal Council.

Consider this. A casual look at the Kudchadkar storm water nullah at the culvert, right opposite the Kudchadkar Hospital, shows that all isn’t well on the ground. Leave alone sewage and wastewater flowing into the nullah, the water channel plays host to plastic waste, indicating that neither the local Margao Municipal Council nor the Water Resources Department (WRD) has yet put a mechanism in place to clear plastic and other waste flowing in the nullah from time to time.

A walk further down the nullah on the side of the hospital has revealed that the nullah is choked with plastic waste, indicating that the authorities, including WRD and the MMC, initiate the clean-up operation only when the matter is brought to the notice of the Court.

A little further down the nallah and one would come across the water hyacinth weed literally invading the nullah which was de-silted by the Water Resources Department recently. In fact, Water Resources Department officials had cautioned some time ago that de-silting of the stormwater nullahs by the department would not bring about a permanent solution unless authorities, including the Sewage Infrastructure Development Corporation of Goa Ltd (SIDCGL), Margao Municipal Council, and PWD (Sewerage), plug the flow of raw sewage into the nullah.

Limited success

Thanks to the High Court directions in the PIL filed by Navelim citizen Antonio Alvares, the migrant-inhabited Azad Nagar colony near the ESI Hospital is finally connected to the underground sewage line. In the absence of house sewerage connections, the wastewater from the colony was flowing into the nullah, which later found its way into the Kudchadkar nullah, ultimately flowing into the Salpem lake.

However, the SIDCGL, MMC, and the PWD (Sewerage) have a task at hand ” how to stop the flow of sewage and waste into the stormwater nullah. No doubt, action initiated by the MMC and the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), including sealing of commercial establishments, has forced many an owner to apply for consent to operate and to obtain sewerage connections.

However, the authorities are yet to find a solution to the sewage disposal problem in some of the densely populated areas of the city, including Malbhat, where there is hardly any open space available to lay the underground sewerage line.

In the past, the PWD (Sewerage) had proposed the implementation of vacuum technology to beat the space constraints, but the technology has only remained on paper to date.

Authorities found wanting

The Margao Municipal Council seems to have been found wanting in taking action to its logical conclusion. This became evident in the High Court when the PIL came up for hearing earlier this week, as the Amicus Curiae sought directions from the Court to the MMC to immediately take steps to seal the 16 structures as highlighted in the MMC affidavit dated April 1, 2025.

That’s not all. The Amicus Curiae sought further directions from the Court to the MMC to complete adjudication of the Show Cause Notices issued to the residential establishments by May 15, 2025, as a last and final opportunity, by conducting physical inspection and verification whenever it is represented that there is compliance. The Amicus Curiae has further sought the Court’s directions to complete adjudication of the Show Cause Notices from pages 1166 to 1175 by June 1, 2025.

That the Amicus Curiae has further sought the Court’s directions to the MMC to comply with all the directions issued in the High Court order dated November 19, 2024, indicates that the civic body has been found wanting to implement the Court’s directives.