TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Even as the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) team descended at Mobor-Cavelossim to inspect the proposed site of a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) of a starred hotel on the banks of River Sal, Cavelossim villagers along with their counterparts from Cutbona have decided to stage a protest near the STP site on Wednesday morning against the construction of the plant close to the river.
The villagers have invited Benaulim MLA Caitu Silva and his Velim counterpart Benjamin D’Silva to join the protest and stop construction of the STP on the banks of the river.
Cavelossim villagers contend that the panchayat had only given the starred hotel the NOC to upgrade the STP and wondered how the hotel can build a new plant at a new location based on a NOC for upgradation.
The villagers said the panchayat ought to have inspected the site before issuing the NOC based on a resolution adopted last year. “The villagers will not allow construction of the STP on the river banks under the guise of upgradation of the existing STP inside the hotel premises. We will oppose this tooth-and-nail”, a local warned.
Based on a complaint lodged by the villagers, GSPCB Chairman Jose Manuel Noronha dispatched a team to the site on Tuesday evening to inspect the proposed STP site and also the pipeline laid by the starred hotel, connecting River Sal.
“My officials had been at the site to inspect the proposed site and the pipeline. We will know the exact status of the proposed STP site and the pipeline connecting the river to the hotel property”, Noronha said.
Villagers are apprehensive that any permission to erect the STP on the river banks would spell disaster to the marine life in River Sal, which has already witnessed deaths of the clams this season, because of discharge of sewage waste in the river.
“We would like to know whether the starred hotel has obtained NOC from the GSPCB the consent to establish the STP. Does the proposed STP conform to the CRZ norms in force? Can a new STP be built based on NOC for upgrading the existing one”, the villagers questioned.
