The taluka of Bardez was in the throes of a severe water shortage last week after a canal of the Tillari dam in Maharashtra was breached and the gates of the Amthane dam at Bicholim got jammed. Apart from supply from Tillari, water from the Amthane dam is routinely directed to the Assonora plant where it is treated and then channeled to villages in the taluka. But when the reservoir's gates were jammed, it left Bardez - which is home to several populous tourist locales - staring at a crisis.
The authorities concerned already knew there was a problem when the left bank canal of the Tillari reservoir - which is one of the main suppliers of raw water to Goa - was breached. For close to five days thereafter, the Porvorim treatment plant had to be shut because it was not receiving any raw water for treatment. This was the first blow that Bardez took.
Matters were further compounded when water from the alternative source - the Amthane dam - could not be released either because the gates were jammed. Round-the-clock intervention by the water resources department and Navy divers led to the gates of the dam finally being opened five days later. In the interim, homes, establishments and institutions were in dire straits, with reports of some schools and offices even choosing to stay closed until water supply resumed. Almost the entire taluka was left entirely at the mercy of tankers for the supply of potable water till then.
In his signature style, chief minister Pramod Sawant announced that an inquiry would be conducted into the issue of the gates of the Amthane dam being jammed. He assured that strict action would be taken against the engineer responsible for the delay in opening the gates. However, what Sawant failed to address was the root cause: Water wastage.
Though the most recent water shortage was caused due to technical problems, the issue could be seen as a preview of what is to come in the future years if we continue taking for granted what is, hands down, the world's most precious resource. Water wastage should be a cause for alarm right from the domestic up to the industrial levels. The simple act of turning the tap off while brushing one's teeth or while scrubbing dirty dishes can save gallons of water for another day, but the profound impacts of these small habits seem to be lost on most people. Other ways in which water is wasted on the domestic level is when people take long baths and showers, run laundry loads with the washing machine only half full, water gardens excessively and clean cars with high pressure water pumps.
Then there is the issue of excavation works along roads that almost always damage water pipes and result in millions of litres of water being lost. Contractors are instructed to exercise caution to ensure that such infrastructure is not damaged - as it could result in entire locales going dry - but water pipes getting ruptured after being hit by earthmoving machinery is now commonplace in parts of the state were excavation for highway expansion or laying of underground cables and sewers is under way.
Also, the state's water supply network is now bordering on ancient, with pipelines corroding and bursting due to age, pressure and other external factors. If the government is keen on saving water and plugging losses in revenue due to such leaks that happen all over the state on a frequent basis, it must replace Goa's entire water pipeline network on a war footing. Work towards this end is presently ongoing in Bicholim and must ideally be taken up in all other villages and towns as well, as soon as possible.
Successive ministers of the public works department have been promising to stop water wastage by changing the state's pipeline network and cracking down on revenue loss by checking illegal tapping of water and the use of booster pumps. How far their statements have translated into action is apparent. In the meanwhile, citizens are left with no option but to deal with their day-to-day travails by themselves when the state declares that water is unavailable. Each is left to his own devices, again a preview of what is to come in the future.