MAPUSA
Improved water management and monitoring has spared the blues on supply of drinking water to parts of Bardez this summer, but officials in the PWD hope the rain Gods will smile on Goa and other parts of the country sooner than later, as the sources of water were depleting fast and the situation could soon spill into a crisis.
In the past, Mapusa has faced the brunt of water shortage problems partly due to its topography but mostly due to technical issues like maintenance, power cuts or failure of pumps at the Assonora treatment plant.
However, this year, there were not many complaints of water shortage reported from Mapusa and the neighbouring constituencies of Aldona and Tivim.
Mapusa councillor Kamal D’Souza informed that water supply in her area was good and there were no complaints from people from her ward in Khorlim.
“So far so good. We have had regular supply of drinking water this summer season unlike in the past. There is marked improvement in supply of water considering our experiences last year and in the past. Also there were fewer pipeline breakdowns,” D’Souza said.
Seconding her view was her colleague Shashank Narvekar, who also admitted that there was no water scarcity problem in Mapusa this year.
“We faced some water issues due to break down of pipelines on account of the ongoing underground power cabling work. But apart from that there was no major water crisis in town thus far. We haven’t received complaints from the residents. This year was much better compared to previous years,” Narvekar opined.
But if the onset of monsoon gets delayed then there could be a major problem as signs of stress were showing and reports of low pressure had started trickling in.
“For the last two to three days, we have been getting water at a very low pressure. I hope it’s just a localised problem and the matter is resolved soon,” said Reshma Naik, a housewife from Shetya-vaddo, Mapusa.
Similarly, apart from one or two villages there were no much water-related issues in Aldona.
While people in Calvim faced water problems due to its elevated topography, residents of Ecoxim also faced water shortage more due to some localised problems in the area.
“We have not faced much of a problem over supply of water in Aldona. There were a few issues in Ecoxim and Moira but these were more on account of some localised problems rather than any serious water shortage,” said Carlos Ferreira, MLA of Aldona.
Neighbouring Tivim constituency too did not face much of a problem over supply of drinking water.
“At least for the last three months we have been getting regular PWD water supply at least in my area. There are a few pockets which don’t get regular supply since the houses are either at the tail end or are situated at a higher level,” said Kalpesh Matkar, a resident of Colvale.
According to AE Jose Caldeira of PWD (water), apart from some localised problems, by and large there were not many complaints of water shortage in Mapusa, Aldona and Tivim.
“This is precisely because we have fine-tuned the distribution system in Mapusa so that every area gets at least three to four hours of water. Besides, we have also managed to improve our monitoring system which has helped greatly,” Caldeira said.
The Assonora water treatment plant gets supply of raw water majorly from Tillari reservoir in Maharashtra and Amtane dam in Goa.
With water in Amtane dam dropping in summer water from Sal river is pumped into the dam.
Sources in the PWD informed that there was marked reduction in supply of water from the Tillari reservoir which is a cause for concern and if the onset of monsoon gets delayed then it could cause some problem.
