We are well into the New Year 2020, looking forward what does the future beckon of us? Many of us by now must be sitting pretty with broken promises and resolutions in the week gone by in which we heralded and ushered in the year with pomp and gaiety.
Ever since Goa got liberated in 1961 and attained statehood 1989, have things looked better and brighter for the average Goa? The answer squarely is a “big No”. Whilst we see the so called development in terms of concrete jungles mushrooming all around us, we see Goa of yester years totally rapid and plundered. The mining in Goa has totally destroyed our aquifers, ripped off our hills, silted our agricultural fields, catalysed respiratory infections and acutely disturbed our ecosystem, biodiversity and ushered a devastating problem, whereby ground water table has receded and depleted as well polluted our water resources. As years go by we would see flooding during monsoons accompanied by acute soil erosion and landslides, but during the summers we would witness very hot days, lakes silted and rivers polluted with mining rejects and industrial effluents too. Although today Goa is free of the mining troubles our woes are far from over. The tertiary sector of our economy has become a bane to the locals.
Sad but true; greedy tourism industry of Goa is surreptitiously destroying Goan resources and livelihood in the form of fisheries, agriculture, floriculture, etc, as solid waste management in Goa is in turmoil and is a disgrace to us all. The scientific treatments of garbage, effluents, industrial wastes and stalling of housing, commercial and industrial complexes should be our priority to bring back a sustainable and holistic development of our Goan society.
Yes, we always say, that we have to think globally but ensure that we act locally to global warming and undertake sustainable development for our global society at large. Sadly, we have been condemned to suffer acute distress and challenges to our very existence or survival. The impacts of global warming and sea water level rise; caused by melting of polar ice and glaciers surely is adversely affecting the vast expanses of coastal Goa and the low lying reaches of river banks. Are Goans prepared to face coastal erosion, flooding and displacement of our population?
Interestingly, it is depressing that Goa is reeking and reeling into a series of man-made disasters. Our developmental models are centred around massive corruption, scams and widening of gap between the rich and the poor. From an aggressive and dynamic agrarian society of yester years, we are a parasitic society of Goa today. Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries and horticulture was decentralised in the past. There was plenty of fresh waters in our springs, rivers, lakes. Bacteria-free potable water was there for our taking in every household well. Water is the basic and core requirement to fuel the growth of Goa. Sadly, today the centralised PWD pipeline water coming the Opa plant over River Khandepar is full of oxides of iron and visibly reddish brown and not crystal clear as the well waters of the yester years. In the 1960s we were forced to close down our wells, to secure centralised water supplied by PWD.
We are churning out scores of civil engineers who have messed up our water supply network. As of today, the entire city of Panjim is reeling under water crisis. The hotels and commerce establishments in the capital city have all added on huge sumps to beat the two-hour water supply schedule of the PWD engineers. The sad reality of today is that the residents including yours sincerely do not get water as the hundreds of sumps around the city overflow during the period the water is released and millions of litres of water go down the drain.
Goa of today has locals abandoning agriculture, fisheries, vegetable farming and orchards. Poultry, farming, floriculture and fisheries is today centralised and under the control of out-station mafia, with traditional fishermen, farmers and vendors making their living by migrating to Europe. Thanks to Portuguese colonial master, who has bestowed upon us the goodness of the Portuguese passport and an easy access to jobs within the European Union and other countries.
The gates of hell are often opened wide with the best of intentions. Sadly the NGOs who are active trying to save Mhadei waters for Goa in the tribunal are not research scientists or men equipped with quantified data to espouse the cause of Goa. The government of Goa has not spent on research projects conducted by established hydrologists, marine geologists or experts studying the biodiversity of Goan but we counted our hope only on lawyers, without the backing of scientific data.
The developmental policy for Goa is against the sustainable and holistic development of Goans. Will Goans wake up to the parasites and parasitic form of governance of Goa, which is destroying us completely? Is a bloody revolution possible? No doubt we have totally ignored to harness the goodness of the primary sector of our economy and focused ourselves on the service sector or the tertiary sector to sustain the sagging Goan economy. Is it then a wonder to see drug related deaths at our music festivals?
We require a revolution so that the politicians governing us are usurping power and destroying us. It is time for us to wake up and act fast and wisely by screening and selecting worthy educated and informed candidates to represent us.
(The writer is a retired University Professor)
