PANJIM: In 2012 the Goa government was alarmed enough by the overexploitation of ground water to declare the entire State as a scheduled area, under the Goa Ground Water Regulation Act 2002, with protocols and policies in place to ensure that ground water is not exploited for activities other than drinking. However, these did not come in the way when the Goa State Pollution Control Board cleared the contentious project of Vani Agro Farms for its beer and alcohol factory even though the High Powered Coordination Committee (HPCC) which looked into the proposal cleared it with the express condition that provisions for rainwater harvesting and recharging had to made within the factory premises. Most crucially the HPCC stated that the ground water had been depleted.
So let’s get this. The HPCC said the ground water aquifers had depleted. The Goa State Pollution Control still went ahead and cleared it, albeit with a condition that water harvesting and ground water recharge had to be in place. This decision itself is questionable since a clearance was given in an aquifer depleted area.
Where does Vani Agro plan to get its 6 litres of water for one litre of beer? Over ground or underground?
The sheer inconsistency where the water will come from is baffling. In their project report (point 7.2.3) Vani Agro states, “Water is the most important input in manufacture of beer and 6 litres of water will be required for one litre of beer. This is available from underground sources.
Firstly, how did Vani Agro assume that water “is available” when there is a clear ground report that aquifers are severely depleted. It then got the HPCC to clear the proposal which included drawing water from underground resources in a depleted aquifer zone.
In its application to Water Resource Department, it wanted 506 cubic metres from the Uguem River, an over-ground source. It then went to seek an NOC from the water resources department for “lifting of raw water from River Uguem at Amdai Quinamol. This is not an underground source but an over ground source. The quantum of water needed by Vani Agro was massive 506 cubic met (5.06 lakh litres of water) daily. The NOC report states, “The applicant, as per the layout plan, requires 506 cubic metres of raw water per day from the adjoining river for its various operations.”
The WRD department too cleared the proposal even though its site inspection revealed that the intake point of the water was 750 metres upstream of the Quinamol Lift Irrigation Scheme, which supplies water to 10 hectares of agricultural land in the area.
It is clear that the WRD was under pressure to grant this NOC, because its action ultimately meant this. Vani Agro would draw water from the upstream of the Uguem River, which supplies water to an irrigation scheme thereby severely threatening that supply. It therefore attached a condition. “The permission may be revoked without giving prior notice of there’s shortage of water to the Quinamol lift irrigation scheme”. This is nothing but a safety valve. WRD sources told Herald that this will severely affect the lift irrigation scheme and they did not want the blame to lie on their door.
We conclude our three part series for now, but the story of how this flawed ‘red category’ project, in which the Sanguem MLA and his family members are personally stakeholders, has been cleared by allowing fields, orchards and irrigated land to be destroyed, will continue to be covered by Herald. This is a story of this government’s surrender to private commercial interest parties and how every department, working on orders of the government have kept the interests of the State aside to back this project.
