“Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink” is a well-known adage. Ironically, this is the situation the capital city of Goa faced where the entire Panjim city roads, houses and several residential complexes were flooded by destructive levels of rain water but sadly the government supplied drinking water was totally absent for the residents and commercial complexes in Panjim.
This was the time Panjim experienced one of the worst water shortages in decades, that too in the middle of monsoon. From August 14 to 23 the sufferers were the residents of high rise buildings and even single family homes of Senior Citizens, which included yours sincerely. All were left high and dry to fend for themselves leaving all the storage tanks of everybody totally empty. For many days after that too, muddy water was being supplied that too at very low pressure through the distribution network leaving half the residents of Panjim with little or no water supplies because they don’t have storage facilities and have to survive on a day to day release of water supply through the PWD water supply network. Even now, a month down the line, the situation has not fully restored.
While the blame game is on, we need to understand what really is the water requirement of Panjim in mld. Whether we could augment the supply in various ways?
PWD engineers in the water supply division lack vision and direction and care not to understand as to why certain pockets get water all time in a day, some 2 times a day and many pockets do not get water even for 2 hours and are often left without Governmental water supply and are often left to fend for themselves through the services of private tankers. It is incumbent upon the Principal Chief Engineer of PWD to ensure that there is equitable per capita distribution of water to all the residents as far as possible. Why is it that even to date there exists “red tape ” VIP 24-hour water supply lines supplying 24/7 x 365 water to the sumps and tanks not only to a few bureaucrats and politicians but also down the line to all the selected residents of Panjim in the neighbourhood to this VIP line?
So while 95% of the residents of Panjim are living in precarious situations of water shortages and polluted water supply, it is only 5% that live in privileged water supply using the potable water to bathe themselves, their gardens and all and sundry, whereas the residents are left thirsty, to meet the challenges of scanty water supply each day. A nail to the coffin of woes of the poor Panjimites, the large tanks of high rise buildings, swanky malls, and commercial complexes are usurping 80% of the water supply, while 90% and more receive low pressure water released through metered valves distributed through extensive pipes running across the city which is left empty for over 20 hours on a daily basis. Little do the people of Panjim realise that the 5% privilege class are least bothered about their water woes as the corrupt water supply engineers are dancing to the tunes of the privileged class.
According to sound engineering practice, water supply lines should never be devoid of water. These partially empty pipelines would only serve as a conduit for sewage water and storm water to get sucked in through weak spots in the network. This is exactly what is happening in Panjim where people receive storm water and sewage water through their domestic water supply lines, while those in governance are dancing merry on surplus treated water supply.
It may be noted that during the Black week when water supply was stopped in Panjim, PWD had pressed into service 300 trips of private water tankers incurring huge expenses of water supply charges running into several lakhs of rupees whereby water was supplied many times over to the privileged class of 5% and all of Panjim including yours sincerely was left to suck their thumb in disgust without a single drop being supplied even after making hundreds of desperate calls to the designated officer and the PWD emergency water supply division. We know that fortunately Panjim and its surrounding areas have springs in Mala, Tigurbaim, Boca de Vaca, etc, besides the Chimbel Lake, St Cruz ponds, Bondvoll Lake, etc, which were widely used during Portuguese rule for supplying water to Panjim and nearby areas. These sources must be immediately tapped to augment the PWD supplies during good and bad times. During late Bhau Bandodkar’s time, the centralised water supply system was implemented and the populace was compelled to close and seal off more than 500 domestic wells. Till date these water resources which still exists, now have contaminated water with sewage releases due to unplanned real estate development of Panjim wherein sewage of high-rise buildings have entered and contaminated the ground water table.
During the water crisis in Panjim last month, we saw political opponents and a few citizens ludicrously and ridiculously brandishing empty buckets with an attempt to score brownie points while the people for yearning for scarce supply of water. Government should conduct a water audit to evaluate the number of excess (no more than one is legal) water meters and water requirement of individual dwelling units and set a limit to each unit. Vigilance over the corrupt engineers should be beefed up. In order to put things in place, govt should constitute a vigilance team to address the water woes of Goa.
People of Panjim and Goa are in deep slumber to realities and a water revolution is today a must or else people would die like poisoned rats of water borne epidemics because contamination and water scarcity would propel water borne disease like cancer, jaundice, hepatitis, enteric infections, legionellosis, etc, for which we ourselves would be guilty of.
