With just a fortnight to go before the onset of the monsoon, the government agencies are yet to undertake the much-needed pre-monsoon preparedness tasks and are definitely far from completing the mandatory preparatory duties in order to ensure a disaster-free monsoon atleast this year.
The capital city of Panjim which has over the decades been prone to floods during heavy showers, accompanied by the high tide, is literally preparing to be submerged in rainwater but also in the sewage that will be flowing during the monsoon due to clogged and damaged sewage chambers. The Pandora’s Box of the city’s disasters has already been unearthed and it is no more a secret that beginning with the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) supported by the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP), Public Works Department (PWD), Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA), Electricity Department, District Collector’s office, amongst others, they have already set in motion the worst calamity the capital awaits in decades.
Earlier generations would recall the June 6, 1994, cyclone that struck the State with Panjim severely hit, claiming eight lives and damaging property worth crores of rupees. It is known that had the cyclonic winds been accompanied by excessive rainfall, Panjim and other parts of the State would have witnessed a major disaster. Fast-forward two decades later and the situation instead of being better has only worsened. Over the last decade, the mismanagement of the city’s landscape and haphazard ‘development’ has meant a perfect recipe for ensuring a disaster. Every year, Panjim’s low-lying areas are flooded, with government agencies having no clue or a solution. Just like the Chinese proverb, ‘Begin to dig a well only when one feels thirsty’, the Goa government and its agencies only think of solutions when it begins to pour heavily, but by then it’s too late. And after the disaster, the matter is pushed under the carpet.
Every new CCP Mayor over the years has claimed to be the first one to have cleaned the Portuguese-era main storm-water drains and other drainage networks of the capital. The St Inez Creek has become the legacy for dumping everything from garbage to construction debris to open defecation, and each year the government tries its best to desilt and clean the creek. The same is the fate of Rua de Orem Creek which ensures that houses in the low-lying areas of Mala are inundated during monsoon causing heavy losses to the residents.
It comes as a shocker when the Chief Minister makes a statement that he has directed the Water Resources Department (WRD) to desilt a river just a fortnight before the onset of the monsoon. In the last five years, the State has suffered every year from the fury of floods. In 2021, the State faced a double whammy, first due to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic claiming hundreds of lives within days, followed by a monsoon disaster which the CM termed the worst in 40 years. Hundreds of houses were damaged in the aftermath of the floods experienced across the State and a precious life was lost. And yet again, the year 2022 was no different and the State was not prepared to face the monsoon.
The reply by the Revenue Minister to the Leader of the Opposition exposes the government’s lack of preparedness. Earlier this year, the Chief Minister inaugurated cyclone shelters, however, the question is how well we have prepared in the first place to avoid a disaster. Without accomplishing the basic tasks such as desilting drains, nullahs and rivers, and ensuring that the passage for the rainwater is cleared of all types of obstacles, no preparation is complete. The Government must understand that it is ‘better to be safe than sorry’.
