TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Activists have knocked the doors of the Goa State Bio-diversity Board to save the Sapu Tollem from concretization as the lake is being developed for the proposed water supply scheme in Ambelim village.
They have drawn attention of the Bio-diversity Board that the Water Resources department is doing the job without consulting the experts belonging to the biological field.
Asserting that the WRD is building the embankment of the lake with concrete, Ronny Dias said it is a well known fact that embankments of fresh water bodies must be built with earthen and natural resources such as rubble, laterite stones and mud in order to maintain the quality of the water and the biological and ecological balance that are most important for the health of the water body. “A natural land water interface is essential for the upkeep of the water quality, healthy growth of flora and fauna in the water body and on the banks and for recharge of government in the neighbouring lands”, Dias said in his petition to the Member Secretary, Goa Bio-diversity Board.
Development of the lake by the Water Resources department to supply 10 MLD of drinking water to the villages of Ambelim, Velim and Assolna had kicked up a row after the activists raised their objections to the concretisation of the embankment. The project had come under opposition from the Ambelim gram sabha, which had demanded scrapping of the project on grounds that the concretisation of the lake would adversely affect the bio-diversity and the environment.
Velim MLA Benjanim D’Silva supported the project.
on the plea that the lake development would tide over the drinking water problem faced by the villagers of Ambelim, Velim and Assolna.
