MARGAO
Hazard a guess on the outcome on the inspection of the storm water nallahs carried out by government agencies as per the High Court directions on the sewage discharge in the commercial capital on Wednesday.
Well, the same old story of rampant discharge of sewage waters in the storm water drains unfolded as officials of the Goa State Pollution Control Board, (GSPCB), Sewerage Infrastructure Development Corporation of Goa Ltd (SIDCGL), besides Margao Municipal Council and the PWD inspected the storm water nallahs along with the Petitioner in the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the High Court Prof Antonio Alvares.
Citizens accompanying the inspection team point blank told the officials that there’s no change in the ground reality on sewage disposal via the storm water drains compared with the previous inspections.
In fact, a farmer from Navelim James Gomes wondered how many more inspections would the authorities and the government need to finally cap the issue of rampant discharge of sewage into the drains, which has left the agricultural, water bodies and the river Sal contaminated and devastated.
Indeed, officials of the GSPCB, MMC and SIDCGL saw with their eyes how sewage, plastic waste is flowing in the Kudchadkar hospital nallah to the brim. They also came across the bitter reality that the storm water drain has not been de-silted by the Water Resources Department and the Margao Municipal Council.
What has taken the inspection team, the petitioner and the citizens aback was the fact that the proposal to pump the sewage water near the Kudchadkar storm water nallah to the nearby 20MLD STP at Sirvodem has not taken effect till date.
The inspection team concentrated on the city’s southern side, inspecting the Kudchadkar nallah, the Azad Nagar nallah, the STP plants at Sirvodem, besides minor drains, all carrying raw sewage water from Margao city before emptying into the river Sal.
