Citizen files PIL to stop the dumping of raw sewage in open

Pursuant to his complaints already filed with the Margao Municipal Council, Sewerage department, Margao Urban Health Centre and Chief Secretary, activist Savio Dias has filed a public interest litigation in the High Court. The major concern is the health and well being of the residents living in close proximity to the areas where untreated raw sewage has been released in the open.

All parties have been served a notice and have been asked to reply on the issue before February 29, the date of the next hearing. They have been asked to reply with data on the untreated sewage released in open areas at Fatorda and at Margao and also due to the clogged and contaminated blocked sewage in the manholes of the Maddel sewerage link that has lost connection to the Margao sewerage line.

The petitioner seeks the intervention of the High Court to put an end to the health hazards and public nuisance caused to the general public due to faulty the sewerage line in Margao and Fatorda and also in his ward Maddel, Margao where the sewerage link is not functioning and sewage is clogged in the manholes, thereby polluting the drinking water wells and rendering them unfit for drinking.

The petitioner submitted that the entire sewage from western side Fatorda and Margao is released in the open drains and nullahs thereby polluting the environment and causing major pollution in the River Sal. He listed out eight locations where raw sewage is released directly: behind under construction district hospital, Ambajim, near St. Francis Xavier Chapel, Maddel, opposite the District and Sessions Court, near Civil and Criminal Court, on Margao Colva Road, along the Ring Road at Comba and near River Sal at Khareband.

Savio further alleged that for the more than four years the raw sewage has been released in the open causing health hazards and a public nuisance in the locality. He submitted that this is allegedly carried out by the sewerage department as the entire main sewerage line laid in 1984 from Fatorda to the sewerage treatment plant has worn out, blocked and unfit to carry out the vast sewage waste.

The petitioner further complained that the general public of the locality have been living for generations without any health hazard prior to the sewage release and that now diseases like malaria, dengue, filaria, encephalitis and jaundice have been detected.