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PANJIM: Residents of Sodiem, Siolim found water gushing onto the roads and into their houses after Tillari canal water overflowed on Saturday, as is the case each year. Till date government has not given any consideration to this issue.
“Water came in all of a sudden. This has been happening since the canal was constructed,” Generosa Fernandes an elderly lady told media, questioning about what would have happened in case this had happened in the night. She said that this time even two snakes were washed into the house along with the water.
The Tillari canal has been plagued with problems since its inception and though it is supposed to have been a boon to the state’s agriculture, this year the breaches have resulted in farmers from areas like Sal, losing a major part of their crop.
The state government is not fully backing the project, people say inspite of the fact that a lot of tax payers money has already been spent to build it.
An Irrigation Department engineer Sunil Karmakar who spoke to media said that the entire canal from Dodamarg to Guirim was complete, while admitting that this would be a perennial problem during the first rains.
“We need to open the gates and clean the canal during the first two days. This is a problem with the first rains,” he said adding that there will be problem later as they would open the valves near the Mapusa creek and the water would overflow.
