Team Herald
MARGAO: The impact of climate change will have very serious implications for Goa, stated Dr R K Pachauri, Head of The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), while speaking on the need for River Bank Filtration (RFB) projects for survival.
He stated that the result would be not just loss of habitation and livelihood, but also excessive salination of freshwater bodies.
Pachauri was in Mandopa, Navelim, for the inauguration of the RBF project for River Sal. He later interacted with the people on the adaptation for climate change and the impact it will have on Goa.
“RFB for rivers like Sal is an adaptation and to convince ourselves that the water we have in these rivers won’t be suitable for drinking in the future. The phenomenon of rising seawater level will push saline water inlands, rendering the lands uncultivable and the water undrinkable. RBF, in these cases will have an important role in purifying the waters of the rivers. The fact that the waters will be extremely saline in the future also awakens to the fact that the process has to be worked with highly saline water too,” said Pachauri.
While differing from the Paris agreement on climate change, he said that the agreement is far from adequate to protect the world and the ecosystem of the planet from climate change. “The fact is that climate change is too rapid, and cutting down on the use of fossil fuels will have an impact for decades. We will have to adapt as Goa is vulnerable to climate change. The RBF is one step towards ensuring that the people still get much-needed water for the future,” said Pachauri.
He continued, “There will be extreme natural events in the future, which will be heat waves and precipitation, the example of which is Chennai floods, where excessive amounts of rains will pour in a short time. This will also be a risk to life and property.”
He further said that the rise in sea level calls for stricter coastal restriction and regulations and it was a fact that some houses and establishments can’t be kept in the path of risks. He added that coastal restrictions and zoning also had to be looked at intensively.
“The seawater level by the end of the present century is expected to increase over 98 centimetres, which is almost a metre. This is due to the rise in temperature of the entire planet, which has been recorded to be an average temperature of 0.85 degrees Celsius. This rise will not only cause a loss to huge amount of establishments and livelihoods, but will also cause the groundwater to become saline,” said Pachauri.
Informing about his visit to Guyana, he stated that a part of the country’s capital city is already submerged so much so that they have been forced to shift the capital city to another place.
He said, “Guyana and Goa not only have the ‘G’ in common, but they have similar problems too. Goa is vulnerable to the impact of climate change, which Guyana has faced. It is a fact that the local development has damaged the environment and has degraded it in several respects.”
Pachauri also said that the future is in the hands of the youth and has expressed hope to mobilise the school children of Goa.
