SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2024
Team Herald
PONDA: The main nullah of Bethora-Ponda situated in the heart of the town and once considered to be the lifeline of groundwater is today clogged and contaminated with untreated waste water released by a beverage unit from the Bethora industrial estate.
The nullah originates from various springs from Bethora and later flows downstream at Curti Khandepar, Ponda, Kavlem and then finally merges into the River Zuari.
|"The perennial source of water nourished paddy fields, had children playing, people bathing and washing their clothes besides irrigating Bagayats. But reckless discharge of effluents by a beverage unit from the Bethora Industrial Estate has contaminated it today," lamented a villager.
"Today the water is highly contaminated and one develops skin infections the moment you step in," said the villager. With rapid urbanisation, people residing on the banks of the nullah also discharge waste water into it. Farmers too have now abandoned their fields here
as they claim that the polluted nullah water is a health hazard to them.
Curti-Khandepar Sarpanch Harish Naik said that he was aware of the issue and had conducted a site inspection of the rivulet basin at Bethora and Curti and had even written to the Goa Pollution Control Board and was waiting for their report.
Ponda MLA and Agriculture Minister said he had already directed to the Pollution Control Board officials to take action against polluting unit at Bethora Industrial Estate.
