KATHY PEREIRA
CANACONA
Residents of Kalguelem in Maxem-Loliem are up in arms against the Fisheries Department for dilly-dallying on their demand to close down a private shrimp farm in the locality, after complaining that their fertile land and about five wells have been contaminated with saline water.
The residents claimed that they have been petitioning the authorities since 1999, but they had failed to close down the farm.
They claimed that health authorities, on the contrary, had acted against them and had successfully closed down traditionally operated pig toilets for having no septic arrangements.
On Tuesday, residents of Kalguelem took local reporters on a tour of their locality showing the contamination effects to their wells and destruction of plantations over a period of time.
“When the farm started in 1994 there was no problem. But later as the privately operated hatchery was extended, about five house wells in the locality began to fill with saline water,” said Carmin D’Souza.
“We lodged a complaint in 1999 with the Collector (South) with copies to village sarpanch and then Poinguinim MLA,” she added.
“Thereafter, we knocked the doors of every authority or the powers that be, including Canacona Mamlatdar and Deputy Collector, but to no avail,” she said.
“With no action, we found salinity increasing particularly high in March to May, causing undue hardships and also affecting our coconut groves and other plantations. Every year 2-3 coconut trees have dried up due to salinity and it became virtually difficult to grow any other plantations in the locality.”
Interestingly, Director of Fisheries Dr Shamila Monteiro in a letter dated June 17 had directed Urbano Pereira to stop the shrimp farming, stating that the licence to run the shrimp farm had expired and not yet renewed due to complaints from the villagers of Kalguelem.
“The activities never stopped, but continued to run normally,” informed another resident.
Another resident, one Selvi, said: “The issue began to boil for us residing here, as every year the private licensee began to extend the land area, which was earlier a paddy field, and is also increasing the farm’s depth, resulting in contamination of our fertile agriculture land with salinity.”
Another resident, Valentin Fernandes, said despite clear-cut direction to stop the shrimp farming, the activities were going on unabated.
“While little efforts were made to stop shrimp farming, a representation signed by about 26 residents submitted to Director of Fisheries (DoF) prompted the DoF to call for individual disposition of the residents before South Goa District Level Coastal Aquaculture Committee, which incidentally took place in the chamber of Director of Fisheries Dr Monteiro on August 26,” informed another resident, Santan D’Souza.
The residents also came down heavily on the Fisheries Department for granting or renewing licences to such projects without consulting the locals. They claimed that the licence to the farm had expired in March 2013.
When contacted, the owner of the private shrimp farm claimed that every activity at his farm at Kalguelem in Maxem-Loliem started two decades ago and is “absolutely legal”.
Urbano Pereira said he has documents to prove his claims and added that his next shrimp production would be reaped in a less than a month from now, indirectly confirming that he would continue with his shrimp farming at Kalguelem, despite an order from the Fisheries Department.
However, when confronted with the Fisheries Department order issued in mid June, Pereira relented a bit but went on to defend his alleged operation.
“I had already agreed to stop farming activities in March, April and May,” he said. “I am told by the government that my licence will be renewed along with other such licences which have been stalled due to some other issues with the government. There is no problem for renewal and it will be done shortly.”
Maintaining that his shrimp farming is not causing any ecological problems or effect to plantations, he said: “I started the activities legally in 1994 and continue to do so in my private property admeasuring 7100 sq mts, cultivating prawns at a constant depth of 2 mts.”
