There was a time when Arpora guest house owner, SunitaMazarello used to look forward to a steady flow of guests from across the worldwhere bonds happened as conversations flowed. These days, all she looks forwardto are the arrival of tankers and the steady flow of water
Sunita has to pay tankers to fill water in her tank everysecond day because of scarcity of water in the area. What makes matters worseis the fact that she hears how most boutique hotels and resorts inBaga-Candolim belt run swimming pools with water pumped from bore wells.
“The wells are gone dry and our rivers are polluted by thedischarge of sewage. Does anybody know the value of water,” queries anexasperated Mazarello.
The builder and resort lobby in North and South Goa struckwater by either hoodwinking the law or mollycoddling the authorities, whilepumping water from bore wells.
“Almost every day a new hotel or a mega housing projectcomes up in Benaulim and Colva. A large quantum of water is pumped fromborewells to satisfy their needs,” pointed out social activist Judith Almeida.
People, who earlier used well water are now forced to take awater connection and pay huge tariff, as their wells have gone dry. Theauthorities aren’t much help and turn a blind eye by blaming each other.Drilling holes that go beyond 90 meters to tap ground water, unlike thetraditional wells of 10-15 meters, has become a nightmare for many in certainvillages.
Joseph Vaz from Navelim blames a popular hotel in Comba fordischarging burnt cooking oil into their old bore well. This oil has surfacedin wells across Comba even as authorities are trying to divert the attention tothe nearby petrol pumps for the contamination.
An irate Gerry D’Souza from Succour questions theauthorities for issuing permissions to ice-cream factories, ice factories,foundries, pharmaceuticals, cold drink bottling units, automobile washingunits, which need a huge amount of water. “Due to scarcity of water these units flout ground water rules and useunmetered pumps to suck out water from bore wells,” D’Souza said.
Water is the new gold in Goa and this little state is slowlybuckling under the water pressure.
