THURSDAY, MAY 02, 2024
Team Herald
CALANGUTE: The Calangute Constituency Forum (CCF) has demanded that the water resources department (WRD) change the plans of the Fondvem nullah, Khobrawaddo, beautification project work on which was recently restarted.
“The Fondvem project at Khobrawaddo which was started in December 2021, was stopped following intervention by the CCF and locals including Joseph Sequeira, who is the present sarpanch, as it would affect the ecological balance and was not in the interest of the village,” CCF President Premanand Divkar said.
“The project has now been restarted with a 3 mtrs-wide ‘bundh’ planned surrounding the Fondvem water body which is not in the interest of the village. We propose that a retaining wall be built instead of the 3mtrs-wide ‘bundh’ to protect the area which was working to soak rain water and recharge the ground water table,” the CCF said in a statement, on Saturday.
The WRD project costing Rs 2.7 crore had been launched just before Christmas in 2021, on the eve of the last Assembly elections, but the work had been at a standstill since then.
The project was recently revived following a demand from the Calangute Comunidade, MLA Michael Lobo said. “The Comunidade wants the work to start again because it's in the interest of the village and the ward because the water gets stagnated there,” he said.
“When the project was started, the people told us to stop, so the WRD stopped the work. Whoever had apprehensions that we're building some road, we're making clear, no road is coming there. We're doing a channel for the water flow, plus whoever has left their sewage inside, they're capping it by putting a ‘bhandara’ on both sides and a garden will come on top,” Lobo said.
The nullah is being redeveloped in two phases, right up to where it joins the Baga River, near the Arpora bridge, WRD officials said.
