PANJIM: Stating that delayed rains has brought to the fore dire need to set up and maintain water storage facilities as the State faced shortage of water during summer, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday warned that henceforth opposition to building bandharas for storing water won’t be tolerated.
Claiming that bandhara at Curti-Ponda could not be completed due to opposition by locals, Sawant said that along with Curti, work of four more bandharas will be taken up by the government.
He sought support and cooperation from people to build bandharas in more places to avoid water scarcity in future.
He was speaking at the launch of flood water pumping station organised by the Water Resources Department (WRD) under the initiative of Smart City Mission at Mala, Panjim for draining out flooded water.
Sawant said that residents of Mala won’t have to worry about floods during rainy season any more.
Explaining the salient features of pumping system costing around Rs 15.90 crore, Sawant said the pumping station has drainage connectivity, which will improve the drainage in the surrounding areas by reconnecting the drains and getting all storm water into the Mala lake, from the areas of Altinho hill and other upper areas of the catchment.
The Chief Minister said it will increase the storage capacity and added that it would control entry of water from the creek into the Mala area. Two electrically operated activator gates have been installed, which will close during the high tide and open during the low tide. This is the second project in the State, the first being the Sankhali pumping station, he added.
For past several years, Mala residents had been suffering during rains due to flooding, with water entering their houses. It now remains to be seen if the new pumping station would be effective enough to mitigate these problems.
Union Minister of State for Tourism Shripad Naik, WRD Minister Subhash Shirodkar, Revenue Minister Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate, CCP Mayor Rohit Monserrate, Deputy Mayor Sanjeev Naik, councillors Shubham Chodankar and Nilesh Morajkar and PWD Chief Engineer Pramod Badami were present.
