PANJIM: The complete failure of successive governments to incrementally develop infrastructure in the State is exemplified by its capital city, Panjim, which is perhaps one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but certainly, the most neglected, and whose residents even today are deprived of decent quality of life and basic amenities such as 24×7 water supply and centralized sewerage system.
Aristotle in his celebrated work Politics had said the city-state comes into being for offering citizens the good life or happiness which is the proper end of the city-state. But the city’s 1,15,000 citizens who live within the Corporation of the City of Panjim jurisdiction have to spend sleepless nights concerned about storing water on a day-to-day basis, and agonizing over sewage disposal in the long term.
Presently the residents of Panjim are on a water ration, uncharacteristic of any modern capital city, even after a little over 53 years of Liberation from the colonial regime. According to the PWD Water division, the city is supplied with 11 MLD of water for only around one and a half hours per day, either in the morning or in the evening, depending on the area.
However, in the near future there seems to be hope on the water supply front with a new 87 kms pipeline sanctioned under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission which is being laid to provide 24×7 water to the city. Work on around 22 kms of this pipeline has been completed. The tentative date for the completion of the balance 65 kms is scheduled to be completed by June 2016.
There are also hopes that the water needs of Panjim will be taken care with a dedicated water treatment plant coming up at Opa for the city alone, that will take care of water supply for the residents till 2040.
Executive Engineer, water division, Dilip Dhavalikar told media, “The new water pipeline will take care of 24×7 water supply for the city. We have completed around 23 kms work on it and are doing the work as per the sanction of the CCP.”
According to him, the new Opa water treatment plant will take care of all the water needs of the capital and its present shortfalls and allow 24×7 water supply, once the pipeline and the treatment plant are completed.
However, the prospects of residents of Panjim getting a full-fledged sewerage system are bleak. Although the water supply system is being financed under JNNURM, the sewerage system is not, for fault of the various agencies that were supposed to draft and submit the proposal.
Sewerage is a major issue in the capital city, since the city does not have any centralized sewage system. Individual household presently have their own unmonitored septic tanks, most of which overflow and many leaking like sieves and polluting water bodies and posing serious health hazard to the city’s residents.
According to experts, test results show that almost 95 percent of the wells in the city are contaminated, except for the ones in the Raj Bhavan-Dona Paula area.
The city lost the opportunity to submit a Detailed Project Report for a comprehensive sewerage system under JNNURM within the given deadline, while the Water Department did so, when ideally both should have been done this together.
At present there are 35 valves that the water department has to manage to ensure that adjustments are made to see that the city gets its water supply – either from 6 to 8.15am or 6 to 8.15pm. “Our lives revolve around making sure somebody is home to store water when it comes,” said a resident.
But once the new pipeline is laid, then authorities assure that the city will get 24×7 water supply within 8 to 10 days of its completion.
Under the present network of pipelines, leakages are another major problem and the department has to plug these leaks which are a major source of water wastage and shortfall.
The political class – whether it was the long-serving Panjim MLA Manohar Parrikar who was elected, term after term, and was elevated as chief minister for the third term in 2012, and the ruling party supported mayors – have done nothing for Panjim in terms of development of essential infrastructures be it roads, footpaths, decent fish market, orderly parking, effective garbage management, 24×7 water supply, comprehensive sewerage system.
The BJP government which got a strong mandate from the people in 2012 has to ensure that the city’s residents (and citizens all over the State) get basic amenities and enjoy a decent tension free life, instead of trumpeting Goa as a tourist destination abroad, while the citizens who are reeling under the crushing weight of ever increasing taxes and at whose cost the jaunts are enjoyed, struggle for day to day amenities.
The sewerage systems too which are a critical necessity and which should connect every household to avoid contamination of every water source in the city should be another top priority of the government, which three years down the line has delivered pretty little considering the ‘acche din’ dreams that it peddled.
