PANJIM: Urging the public to not panic over the water shortage issues as there is enough water in the dams, said Chief Minister, Pramod Sawant on Monday.
He added that the government would write to the Centre for approval for converting mining pits into rainwater harvesting sites.
Chief Minister Sawant said that there is no reason to panic as there is sufficient water in all the basins. Elaborating further, he said that the Selaulim dam has drinking water enough for next 44 days while Anjunem has water for next 19 days, Amthane for 125 days, Panchawadi for 12 and Chapoli for 39 days.
The meeting was attended by PWD Minister, Deepak Pauskar and WRD Minister Vinod Palyenker along with officials from these departments.
“Our project of pumping water in OPA Dam has been successful and hence we have decided that iron ore mining pits will be used as rainwater harvesting sites to tide over the water scarcity during summer in future,” Sawant said.
CM added that the amendment to the central mining act would be made to ensure usage of these pits for rainwater harvesting purpose.
State government has also decided to set a target for WRD engineers in each of the 12 talukas to construct 60 check dams each on the rivers flowing through the areas.
“Our target is that we will have at least 300-400 additional check dams by next year,” said Sawant, while adding that local farmers and citizens would be involved in constructing these dams, rather than tendering the work to some contractor.
Meanwhile, though the monsoon is delayed, Sawant said that the State won’t be facing any scarcity of water as there is enough stock in all the reservoirs.
