Colva creek continues to stink even as authorities play blame game
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JAN 27
The Colva panchayat has pushed the blame on the tourism department for the failure to desilt the village creek, even as there’s no let up in the nuisance and health hazard posed to visitors and tourists to the Colva beach by the sewage waters from the creek waters.
It’s more than a month since the beach played host to a pool of contaminated waters, but neither the Tourism department nor other officials have made their presence felt at Colva till date.
The local Colva village panchayat says that the body had written a letter to the Tourism department last year to identify suitable land for the disposal of silt from the creek.
Sarpanch Angela Borges informed that the Tourism department has till date not replied to the panchayat letter, nor has initiated action against the hotels and eateries against whom notices were served as per the directives of the Goa State Pollution Control Board.
“No sooner the panchayat had received the GSPCB report last year, a meeting was convened of concerned agencies to discuss the serious issue. One of the agencies told the panchayat to identify suitable land for disposal of the silt from the creek. In this connection, the panchayat wrote a letter to the tourism department, but there’s no sign of any reply till date”, Borges said.
Similarly, the sarpanch said the panchayat had issued notices to the hotels and directives were issued to the establishments to set up the soak pit and treatment facility.
“In this connection too, the panchayat had written a letter to the Tourism department, but there’s no communication from the department till date”, she added.
A visit to the Colva beach on Thursday revealed the worst scenario. Contaminated waters from the creek formed a pool on the beach, emanating foul odour.
While local activists have opposed digging of a trench to connect the creek to the Arabian Sea as mooted by unscrupulous elements, none of the agencies have so far made their presence felt at the beach and addressed the problem.
