A report by the Goa State Pollution Control Board shows that 11 Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) in the State, with a combined listed capacity of 73 MLD, are linked to rivers, creeks, nallahs or the sea. These include the Zuari, Mandovi, Sal, Valvanti, and Tar rivers, as well as the Baga and St Inez creeks, all of which ultimately flow into the Arabian Sea. The document also mentions that no cases of raw sewage discharge from the STPs into these water bodies have been reported over the last three years.
Now examine this. A recent submission by the government in the Rajya Sabha reveals the scale of the problem. Goa generates around 176 million litres per day (MLD) of sewage, but has installed treatment capacity of only 87 MLD. In other words, the state has the capacity to treat barely half of what it produces, leaving a staggering shortfall of 89 MLD every day. This tells the story.
Both these reports expose the inherent gaps in the sewage treatment system. The absence of recorded incidents of sewage disposal in water bodies cannot be a point of interpretation because surveys of Goa’s rivers, including those undertaken by the Central Pollution Control Board, have repeatedly recorded alarming levels of faecal coliform, pointing to the presence of sewage contamination.
Moreover, Goa’s sewerage lines have a history of vulnerabilities. A power outage, equipment breakdown or lapse in maintenance at an STP can quickly turn a discharge channel into a pipeline for untreated sewage. In such cases, pathogen-laden waste can flow directly into the water bodies. We have seen sewage pipelines turn into water fountains at Salpem Lake in Navelim, discharging raw sewage into the waters. Fatorda has been a witness to manholes of pipelines opening up and spewing sewage water. Interestingly, the Water Resources Department has proposed a series of expensive interceptor mini-STPs along the river. A 3 MLD plant at Khareband is estimated to cost Rs 24 crore, while a 5 MLD facility at Comba is expected to cost around Rs 38 crore. Such projects may have a role where immediate intervention is unavoidable, but they cannot become a substitute for fixing the underlying problem. Spending tens of crores to treat sewage after it has already entered storm-water drains amounts to addressing the symptom rather than the cause. The priority should be to identify illegal or unauthorised sewer connections, separate sewage from storm-water networks and ensure that waste is captured at source.
Without a comprehensive audit of these drains, the State risks falling into an expensive cycle: sewage enters the waterways, taxpayers pay to intercept and treat it, and the same problem resurfaces elsewhere. The proposal to introduce IoT-based monitoring of private STPs in hotels and large complexes is welcome, but technology alone cannot compensate for the shortcomings in basic public sanitation infrastructure.
Goa needs to be realistic about the sewage crisis. The 89 MLD treatment deficit must be addressed with urgency. Household and commercial connections to municipal sewerage systems need to be enforced, and illegal discharge points identified and closed. Real-time monitoring of sewage treatment and river discharge must be made transparent to the public. Communities and our tourism economy depend heavily on the ecosystems, and hence, Goa cannot take comfort in no recorded breaches. A state that takes pride in its rivers, beaches and natural beauty cannot continue treating its waterways as convenient outlets for waste.
