Team Herald
PONDA: This is Rabi season and the farmers from across Goa are busy cultivating paddy. But the farmers of Kavlem in Bandora are scared of entering their fields and some have even left the fields fallow since past many seasons, because the fields there are full of blood sucking leeches.
The farmers say that their fields have become breeding grounds for leeches, because sewage water from Ponda is flowing into the fields.
This was not so earlier. Years ago, the nullah from Ponda was flowing with clean and fresh water; it was then called the life line of farmers. But for nearly two decades, the same nullah is flowing with sewage water, as there is no sewerage system in Ponda.
According to farmers Premanand Naik and Chandravati Naik, the problem is caused due to rising urbanisation and increase in population in Ponda.
Many farmers who dared to cultivate their fields have suffered from leeches that get attached to their bodies and start sucking their blood.
The farmers have no idea how to remove them safely. However, if salt water is applied on the leeches, they fall off from the body.
The farmers complain that they are already burdened with high cost of farming and now the leech attack has aggravated the problem, as the labourers brought from Karnataka and other States are demanding higher wages to work in leech infested fields.
The farmers opine that once the Sewerage Treatment Plants at Ponda and Marcaim are commissioned, the problem of leeches would subside. However, the projects are facing opposition from some locals.
Ponda MLA Ravi Naik and PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar have even appealed for cooperation from Curti and Undir locals for completing the STP plants in their area so as to protect the nullah and fields from sewage pollution.
