Contamination of groundwater is not a one off event and in the past, the State's Water Resources Department's (WRD) study had red-flagged over exploitation (by pvt tanker services) especially in coastal areas.
While the report done more than a decade ago and authored by former WRD Chief Engineer Sandeep Nadkarni, had marked Goa as 'safe' there were some issues such as ingress of saline water particularly in the coastal belt of North Goa which it had documented.
Interestingly, before 2002 Goa had no law to govern groundwater in the State or regulate its exploitation. Anyone could dig an open well or borewell and pump out as much water as one wished, with no regulator to keep a watch. But in 2002, the Goa Ground Water Regulation Act was enacted by the Goa legislative assembly and some sort of control now rests with the WRD and the Public Works Department (PWD).
The private tanker suppliers who are in great demand from businesses, especially hotels and big restaurants because the piped supply from PWD is inadequate. have been flagged as a major threat to the State's groundwater resources.
Official records reveal that the State has nearly 1,000 private tankers who are registered to supply drinking or portable water. This business roughly earns the State government around Rs 12 lakhs a year. These tankers are registered with the WRD under the groundwater law. However, there is no check or any upper limit for the quantum of groundwater they can trade.
In some areas of the coastal North, especially Calangute, the water in traditional drinking water wells is already facing saline contamination caused by ingress of sea water due to excessive exploitation for commercial purpose.
Across the State, the WRD which has a "Groundwater Cell" headed by its chief engineer, monitors ground water by testing water from wells. Some 100 wells across all regions of Goa are marked as "observation wells" and half that number of 'phisometers' are installed at different locations to monitor the availability or scarcity of ground water both before and after the monsoon.
Over-exploitation apart, the lack of sewerage systems especially in fast-urbanising locales across the State and indiscriminate construction of soak pits, is another serious threat to Goa's groundwater resources.
"Calangute alone has over 10,000 such soak pits and seepage is a huge threat to the groundwater," a top WRD official said, adding that although a sewage treatment plant at Baga-Calangute is ready, it is not fully functional yet.
The threat to groundwater from leaking soak pits across Goa where constructions are mushrooming is real, he added.
