Shyam Chari has been living at Mestavada for over twodecades but lately life has been hard. The shortage of water to theconstituency of Mormugao has been taking its toll on Chari and his family.Often, they are blessed with a few buckets of water in a day. At times, they gowithout the precious liquid for two to three days. “The residents of Mestavadaare facing water crises for the past few years and the situation isdeteriorating day by day. The water supply starts at midnight and shuts off at6am. How are we supposed to fill water at that time? When do we sleep?” Charilaments.
Around 30 confrontations and protests by citizens over waterproblems were witnessed in the past year, which raises serious questions on thefunctioning of the PWD office and its officers.
The Goan attempted to find the root cause behind the regularwater crisis in Mormugao taluka, especially in the residential areas ofZuarinagar, Dabolim, Shantinagar, New Vaddem, Maimollem, Vasco city and wholeof Headland Sada. The 20 kilometer long water pipeline form MBR at Cansua Hillto Headland Sada has around 10 main valves. Shockingly the same gets tamperedby none other than PWD “insiders” in order to create an artificial crisis,sources disclosed.
Asst Engineer, PWD water department, Vishwambar Bhende wasrecently transferred to the Vasco division merely to correct the waterdistribution system in Vasco. This was endorsed by the chief minister ManoharParrikar. Bhende attributes the problem to the tampering of valves.
“To supply water to the various sections of Vasco and thesurrounding areas, we open up the valves one by one, depending on how muchwater is to be supplied to a particular area. However, we have discovered casesof tampering. The issue was brought to our notice a few times and corrected.But, our valves are not protected or locked.” said Bhende.
The total quantum of water needed in Mormugao is more than65 MLD daily. However at any given time the PWD officials receives less than 50MLD and it becomes difficult to distribute this amount properly.
The state government is seized of the matter but it appearsthat senior officials are not given any instructions to act. What is even moreintriguing is that even though there is constant water crisis faced by theresidents, industrial units in the area have no issues. “I have receivedcomplaints that some people from Vasco PWD water division are creating aman-made water crisis and the matter will be dealt strictly,” Chief MinisterManohar Parrikar stated.
