This is with reference to the news report' 'Goa's Har Ghar Jal feat has shown India the way: Modi" (TGE , Aug. 20). It is hard to believe that Goa has achieved yet another milestone of becoming the first certified sate with 100% piped water supply, when hundreds of people in the villages still keep coming out in the streets, complaining and agitating over the failure of the PWD to provide their homes with piped water supply. There are taps galore but without water, is how one can aptly describe the present situation in Goa. This is akin to how the state boasted of being 100% open defecation free 2 years ago, with over a crore of bio- toilets built in every home , but without water --- the reason why people still continue to defecate in the open. It is sad that the earlier vision of late chief minister Manohar Parrikar of a 24x7 water supply for Goa has still remained un-realised.That around 40% of water revenue is lost due to the leakages in the distribution system is something repeated 'ad nauseam' by every PWD minister, both in the past and today. However, the question which still remains unanswered is how 80% of the pipes in the water distribution system are still old, and not yet been replaced, despite crores of rupees spent on the JICA water supply project that was entrusted with work a decade ago.
