ANJUNA: When tourists and other Goans party the nights away in a high-end restaurant, a shack, or a night club paying entrance fees and huge amounts of money going down the drain for fully “spirited” nights of revelry, months ago several residents of Chivar in Anjuna had raised concern over hundreds of litres of water being wasted due to leakage in the main pipeline.
They requested the concerned department and Siolim MLA to intervene in the matter. Locals had said that for the past eight days they had not been receiving proper water but even after complaining about this to the PWD, the department had failed to act. They said that they had taken a morcha to the office of PWD several times, but their demands for regular water supply remained unheard.
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“Water is flowing from the main pipeline because of leakage for the last several days. We are already facing an acute water shortage but on the other hand, hundreds of litres of water are simply going to waste due to the negligence of the concerned department. Water is a basic necessity and we know how we are suffering for it,” local resident Balbina Fernandes had said.
Another local had said, “For the past several days we have been receiving water at a very slow pace but we are receiving proper water bills with change in bill amount every month.”
Moreover in another incident, furious locals from Anjuna and nearby had marched to the PWD officer’s office in Mapusa on March 15, 2022. Locals had kept empty gallons, tumblers, and jars on the officer’s table and demanded a quick solution failing which they had threatened to come out on roads. Locals complained that for several weeks they didn’t have enough water supply, they were assured that that issue would be solved but it was done for a few days.
However, newly-elected MLA, Delihah Lobo, when questioned about this issue, said that presently several panchayats should stop giving NOCs for the mega projects and hotels because people are crying for water while the hotels are given. She added that these projects and hotels should be told to make their own water arrangements.
Even the Government and all the other departments should first solve the issues of the people not of the corporate. Today she said that the old pipeline should also be replaced and assured to solve the matter and take up this matter ahead. Today the government is promising the sky to the people but fails to provide the basic need of water.
