l Goa Velha, Agassaim without water for days
l Damaged pipeline to villages has blocked the water source
l Contaminated wells have made ground water out of reach
GLENN COSTA
GOA VELHA: There’s water, water everywhere… but like in the rhyme of the ancient Mariner, there’s not a drop to drink for people from Goa Velha and Agassaim.
The monsoons are upon them and many areas are facing floods. But for the past many days these villagers have not got a drop of water adding insult to injury as before that they were protesting because they were struggling to fill a few utensils as PWD water comes for around half an hour; and in a tickle. One resident has even likened it to a stream of ‘urine’.
The latest is because the pipe bringing the water into the village has apparently been damaged.
According to the residents, the water problem is not new, but just getting worse. They say they have been facing this problem for at least a year. But this has become worse in the past one-and-a-half to two months and the past 3-4 days was just the icing on the proverbial cake, except in a most cruel way.
“We hardly get any water at all. It is raining outside, but here we do not have any water at all. When water comes, it comes in a trickle and we can hardly fill up a few containers,” says Roopali Chari, a sentiment that is echoed by her neighbours from Pilar, Dixita Naik and Atchut Naik. “The situation is quite bad. Without water we cannot do anything,” says Naik.
According to the people living in the area, this is an old problem which has turned worse around two months back.
The situation in other parts of Goa Velha too are the same. “Our wells are all spoilt. We have to rely on this water. But we don’t get it even for half an hour,” says Philomena Mendes from Forgotrem, Goa Velha,
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adding “We have to fill the water on the ground and then shift it to the upper floors using buckets.”
According to villagers, most of the wells are contaminated due to the close proximity to septic tanks and the water can only be used for watering the garden or washing clothes. “We had got some wells tested and found presence of e coli. Most cannot be used,” says Brian Pegado.
According to Libania Mendes, the situation in the village has slowly been turning from bad to worse and they do not know where to go.
The sarpanch of Goa Velha, Jagdish Bhobe says the situation is quite bad and expresses his helplessness.
“People come and complain to me. But there is not much I can do,” he says.
“We have had no water for the past year. But from February it has been quite bad in Forgottem. We get water for half an hour to one hour and the pressure is quite low too,” says Caterina Alfonso.
PWD says the water situation in Agassaim is due to the damage to the pipeline and because of this the water gets diverted.
“The estimate is almost done. It should come to around Rs 2 crore. Once it is completed we will submit it to the government,” says PWD’s principal chief engineer J S Rego.
But here people are talking of water problems, for, much before the barge incident, and this the authorities are not aware or cannot do much about.
