The stinking Colva creek that has turned into a deterrent for tourists wanting to enjoy the beach is all set to get a new lease of life with a Rs 170 crore cash injection. However there’s a serious rider. This can happen only when restaurants stop dumping their waste into the creek
Public Works Department Minister Sudin Dhavalikar while answering Nationalist Congress Party MLA Churchill Alemao on the floor of the house on Tuesday said that the creek will be on its way to recovery once the sewerage network for Colva is completed in three months.
As all the establishments alongside the creek will be connected to the sewerage system he said they will stop releasing their waste into the creek which is causing the pollution. Once the pollution stops, the creek will be de-silted, he said.
Churchill pointed out that even though Colva is a major tourist destination in South Goa, people have to pinch their noses while crossing the creek because it stinks. “In my childhood people including myself swam in the creek because it was so clean and we used to even catch fish there,” he recalled.
Unfortunately as all the restaurants and hotels that came along the creek in the last 25 years released their waste including sewage in the creek; it has got totally polluted and unusable now. Churchill suggested that once cleaned, the creek could be used for boating during the monsoons.
Social activist Judith Almeida of Colva Civic and Consumer Forum however did not see things changing much even after the sewerage system is commissioned. “The sewage will go to the system but what happens to the kitchen waste that all the establishments alongside the creek are dumping in the creek?” she asked.
She pointed out while earlier the creek was polluted only close to the beach where there were restaurants, in present times the pollution can be found even where the creek begins at the sand dunes as restaurants have sprung up there too.
“Panchayat had permitted stalls but people have illegally converted these stalls into full fledged restaurants and so long as they are not removed, Colva creek will continue to stink,” she said.
She pointed out that the sewerage system in Colva is a result of the High Court petition where an expert committee had testified that the ground water of the creek is polluted and it was suggested that a sewerage system be set up at the beach.
“Our petition before the High Court regarding the pollution of the Colva creek and the surrounding areas is not yet disposed,” said Judith and pointed out that until the government comes up with a concrete plan to curtail pollution of the creek, things will not improve.
