MARGAO
Sulabh International has promised to rectify the overflowing of the soak pit of its toilet block at the Cutbona fishing jetty.
Sadly, neither the Director of Fisheries nor the Health and District authorities have unveiled any plan on how they intend to tackle the sanitation at the fishing jetty thrown up by the migrant crew employed on the fishing vessels operating from Cutbona jetty.
In reply to the notice issued by the Balli PHC on the question of the overflowing soak pit at the jetty, Sulabh has replied saying the agency has made a proposal to the Directorate of Fisheries to construct additional two thanks to further treat the waste.
“The department has agreed to the proposal and we will be taking up these works shortly”, Sulabh senior official Sushil Kumar said while assuring the Health authorities that the problem of the overflowing soak pit will stop after the completion of the construction.
“The public toilet at the jetty is on the bank of the river. The underground water level is very high. This results in the overflow of the soak pit occasionally. We have kept a night soil tanker for the removal of the contents of such septic tanks maintained by us. We have emptied the septic tank at Cutbona Jetty and the overflow is stopped,” he said.
Saying that the agency is aware that this is only a temporary solution, he said the agency has proposed to the Directorate of Fisheries to construct two more tanks to treat the waste in order to provide a permanent solution,” he said.
While the additional two tanks have been mooted to take care of the sewage overflow, nothing has been heard from the Director of Fisheries and the Health department on the 50-seater toilet block and whether the proposal mooted around seven years ago will ever become a reality.
While Velim Sarpanch Savio D’Silva is on record stating that the panchayat had issued the NOC to the 50-seater project around seven years ago, officials from the department of Fisheries and Health have only passed the buck on to each other.
“The Fisheries department should explain whether the Sulabh toilet block is sufficient to meet sanitation needs of 3000 migrant workers. It should further explain why the 50-seater toilet block has not become a reality at the jetty to date,” Savio asserted.
