PANAJI
Despite being showered with over 100 inches of rain on an average, Goa’s water supply woes are a recurring phenomenon in the summer months and this year is unlikely to be any different and PWD officials stare at a long and harrowing summer as usual.
In addition to the usual depletion of water levels at the various reservoirs, disturbance in water supply chains across Goa due to ongoing maintenance and upgradation works of pipelines and summer maintenance works carried out by the power department add to the increasing water supply disruptions to the end consumer.
Later this week, the supply to the entire Bardez taluka will be disrupted as the authorities have planed a 36-hour shutdown at the Assonora water treatment plant.
The PWD said the pipeline parallel to the National Highway-66 (formerly NH-17) from the Karaswada junction to Colvale necessitated the shutting down of the Assonora plant from 7 am on April 15 to 7 pm the next day.
The entire Bardez taluka will therefore have no water supply on April 15 and 16. The following day, supply will be restricted until it is fully restored in the evening, the PWD said.
Similar disruption in water supply will also happen this week in South Goa serviced by the Selaulim water treatment plant due to power supply disruptions.
On Sunday (today), water supply will be shut to Salcete, Mormugao, Sanguem and Quepem areas as the Electricity Department has planned its “annual maintenance shutdown” at its Xeldem sub-station.
The water supply in South Goa will be restored to normalcy only on Tuesday, the PWD said.
Breaches and damage to pipelines by contractors executing work related to the national highways is another recent phenomenon that adds to the disruption of water supply which is acutely felt by the citizenry in the summer months.
A couple of weeks ago, PWD officials in Bardez were kept on their toes when the heavy machinery engaged by the contractor executing the NH-66 expansion work damaged the main 1000 mm diameter underground pipeline at Karaswada. As a result, almost the whole of Bardez taluka including Aldona, Mapusa, Porvorim and parts of Calangute and Saligao was affected and was restored to normalcy only after two days.
PWD officials admitted that such damage to pipelines has been a common occurrence and has happened at least five times in the last 3-4 months. Meanwhile, in the recent budget session of the Goa legislative assembly, the government revealed that over 3,000 complaints of no water supply were attended to by PWD officials over the last two years. Most of these complaints are from North Goa and Bardez taluka topped the list with 561 residents reporting erratic supply. Pernem follows with 506 complaints. Mormugao and Valpoi had 267 complaints of no water supply attended to by the PWD during the two-year period.
