29 May 2023  |   06:16am IST

Guirim STP project more of a curse than a boon

Guirim STP project more of a curse than a boon

Citizen Sabina De Souza Siolim

Construction of a massive Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) is underway in the fields of Guirim along the national highway under the jurisdiction of Socorro Village Panchayat and one fails to understand why the government is promoting huge concrete structures in the fields at the cost of the environment.

On one side the government is promoting agriculture and on the other  it is violating its own principles by erecting up such monstrous structures in the fields.

The villagers of Guirim and Sangolda used to cultivate rice here during the monsoon and in the winter, they grew pulses and vegetables.

Unfortunately with the expansion of National Highway and blocking of the natural waterways, the fields are flooded and inundated during the rainy season and water also flows over the road thereby paralyzing  traffic in the entire area.

Rather than desilting the chocked nullhas and culverts, the government is now rubbing salt into the wounds of farmers by constructing such unwanted structures in the fields which will be more of a curse than a boon. One wonders as to how environment clearances are granted to such projects despite knowing that the area gets submerged during the monsoon. 

It’s just a matter of few days when the sewerage plant is going to drown to death in the first rains.

IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar