Team Herald
PANJIM: Unable to bear with the severe water crisis inconveniencing them, Cacra villagers stormed the Public Works Department (PWD) office in St Inez on Thursday and demanded an immediate solution to the issue.
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Villagers expressed frustration over the acute shortage of water and claimed that their taps have been running dry for over several years and claimed that they faced a ‘drought’ even in the monsoon.
They demanded the replacement of the current water pipeline with a larger one to address the problem.
Speaking to reporters, Gopal Sawant, a resident of Cacra, said: “Water just trickles through the taps and it takes half-an-hour to fill a bucket. Today we have come here with our complaint, and we have now been assured that the lines will be checked. We had come here earlier as well with the same complaint, but no action was taken,” he added.
Another villager highlighted the long-standing demand for pipeline replacement: “We have been asking for the pipes to be changed, but nobody has paid attention to our request. In fact, PWD officials themselves acknowledged that the pipes need replacement because water is not reaching us in sufficient quantities. They also pointed out that the issue is worsened by the increasing number of connections.”
Challenging the PWD’s claim that there is no water pressure in the supply system, the villager questioned why such a problem persists despite Goa receiving over 150 inches of rainfall this year.
The villagers also criticised the government’s promises regarding water supply. “The Chief Minister says he will provide water 24 hours a day, but we are not even receiving water for two hours,” they lamented.
Assistant Engineer Sarita Shirodkar later assured the villagers that their department would send officials to check the pipeline and solve the issue.
