MARGAO: In a bizarre lapse, the locals and panchas of Benaulim discovered that the two government departments carrying out construction work on the banks of River Sal in Kharebandh were not fully aware of what the other department was doing. Neither of them has proper approved plans for the work they were undertaking, either.
They discovered this during a joint inspection that was held on Monday by the Benaulim panchayat along with officials of the Sewerage and Infrastructural Development Corporation of Goa Ltd (SIDCGL) and Water Resources Department (WRD), to assess the recent excavation of a low-lying area on the banks of River Sal, near Khareband.
Last week, the panchayat learnt that the excavation is part of the Colva Sewerage Treatment Plan (STP) sewage discharge line and that a holding tank is being constructed at the excavated site to connect the discharge pipe to the river.
However, when the contractor was unable to provide any site plan or permissions, Sarpanch Xavier Pereira had written to SIDCGL, WRD, the Town and Country Planning Department (TCP) and Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) to attend the inspection.
Barring GCZMA all other departments turned up. While the TCP official said there was no approved plan for the construction of the tank, the WRD official stated that no NOC had been obtained for the construction of the tank.
“We have asked the officials to provide us with the proper approved plans. They showed us some basic plans that did not have any scale and other important data,” Sarpanch Xavier Pereira told Herald.
He added that the officials had not taken any permissions or NOC for the work. “It looks like this is a game of hiding and seek. The pipeline should be above the height of the water so that we can see what water is being discharged. We have also recommended that they connect this pipeline to the Navelim STP directly instead of discharging the water into River Sal,” he added.
At the inspection, it was observed that the location of the tank under construction was not the location shown on the site plan and the satellite plan which was submitted by SIDCGL to the Benaulim panchayat.
The Executive Engineer (EE) of SIDCGL Prakash Pai said that the location is finalised somewhere between the two outlets/culverts, Northeast of the Kharebandh Bridge. Further, it was submitted by Ashwin Sirsat, representative of Unity Consultancy, the consultant for the sewerage project, that the plans submitted to the panchayat are not as per scale and have no date.
The locals raised concerns over flooding due to the cumulative impact of the flow from the culverts and the discharge from the sewerage line during the monsoon. They pointed out that the entire area in question was flooded during the monsoon wherein the water level rose above the road. They expressed worry over the possible erosion of the river bed around the foundation of the Khareband bridge, which could threaten the stability of the bridge.
They requested the SIDCGL EE to lay the discharge pipes above the water so that the water being released will be visible and thus deter the release of untreated sewage. The Sarpanch also asked the SIDCGL EE to obtain TCP and WRD approvals for the construction of the discharge tank and to conduct a comparative financial and technical feasibility study of the original location of the tank where the pipe currently ends and the current site at which the tank is being constructed.
