20 Aug 2019  |   03:58am IST

PANJIM SOAKED, PONJEKARS PARCHED

The bitter irony of the month of August in Goa has been the shortage of water in certain places in the state which has also seen flooding courtesy incessant rains. Tiswadi and Ponda especially are facing the brunt of this. The water pipeline burst due to a landslide caused by heavy rains has led to no water supply, leaving people helpless

Dolcy D’Cruz

Wet roads and dry taps, wet rain soaked

clothes but no water to wash soiled ones. No water to bathe or cook or run the household. Goa’s smart city and its people are in a hopeless state as damaged water pipelines have cut off supplies to Panjim

You can’t complain too much about the rains. Or that is what it seems like when there is acute shortage of water and people are forced to collect rainwater to use for domestic chores. The pipeline that brings water to Tiswadi and Ponda from Opa Water Works near Ponda burst due to a landslide caused by heavy rains and there won’t be any supply till the pipeline is fixed. Today is the sixth day the taps are running dry. The people of Tiswadi and Ponda have no options but to rely on wells, water tanks and bottled water to make ends meet. Many families living in the city had to take a weekend trip to their ancestral villages to cope with the water shortage in the smart city.

Those who have no choice but to stay home and overcome this problem had to rely on calling water tankers. Sajida Khan from Taleigao was hoping that the water supply would resume on Monday morning. However, she was shocked to hear that the supply was further delayed. “Usually, we receive water only from 6am to 7:30am; that’s when we fill our tank. But from Thursday, we haven’t received a drop of water. Many women from the locality requested one home to let us draw water from their well. I even bought 20 litres of drinking water. There was no rain and no water as well. Thankfully, it rained quite heavily on Sunday afternoon and I could fill 6-7 buckets of rainwater. We got one tanker to supply water only on Sunday evening,” says Sajida.

Jatund Shaikh from Chimbel is the only woman from the home who can draw water from the well as her children are too young to carry the pots. “It is dangerous to send the children near the well and I only go if there is a group of women going to the well. I have to fill the water from the well and then leave for work. Many neighbours went to a nearby spring with loads of laundry and washed their clothes with the flowing water. Some children and men even bathed. It is really difficult to manage a household without water, especially with small children,” says Jatund.

The residents of St Cruz have another tale to tell. Ranjan Pandit lives with her four children and one nephew. She complains that drawing water from the well has caused her a shoulder injury. She says, “We have to walk nearly ten minutes to reach the well and draw water from it. My children now take their bikes and one person sits behind holding the pot till they fill the drums and containers at home. We didn’t imagine this shortage to last this long. Learning about the delay is even more worrisome. Unfortunately, the Panchayat has not bothered asking villagers about their water problems. We have not received a tanker yet and have to make do with well water only.”

Swayan Chaudhuri is the Managing Director and CEO at Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Ltd. “Plans are in place but I suggest speaking to the Chief Minister on this as it wouldn’t be right for me to comment as there are so many other stakeholders who are dealing with this and there is an ongoing water management issue right now. There are a number of things in place,” says Swayan.

With most families ordering food from restaurants to avoid the hassle of cooking food at home, restaurants in and around Panjim are running houseful. Salim Sheikh, the owner of Culinary Delight in St Inez shares his experience: “I have bought eight water tankers so far to cope up with the water shortage. The price of the tankers is also hiked from Rs 600 to Rs 800 as it is a lucrative business opportunity for them. For the first two days, we were unaffected as I have 15,000 litres tanks to cater to the hotel needs. The next day, we had to collect rainwater to wash the floors. We can’t rely on the PWD tankers as they have to be booked a day in advance. We have filtered drinking water for cooking. We have been running busy all day because of the water shortage and I have no option but to book tankers to keep the business running,” says Salim.

With no water supply for nearly six days running, the city has been unnecessarily held to ransom and the water woes will continue until the pipeline is repaired.