PANJIM: The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) is appointed as a nodal agency to monitor the coastal water pollution in the State.
The draft Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP), which is kept open for public scrutiny inviting objections and suggestions, has highlighted how the coastal zone of Goa is facing severe issue of release of waste and effluents into the coastal waters, leading to pollution.
The Chennai-based agency- National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), which drafted the CZMP, has proposed that an action plan be prepared for dealing with pollution in coastal areas and waters in a time-bound manner.
Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral said, “The department is receiving lots of complaints with regards to coastal water pollution. In the draft CZMP, we have laid emphasis on the same”.
Cabral said the government has appointed GSPCB as a nodal agency to monitor coastal water pollution across the State. “The pollution authority will be responsible for maintaining coastal water quality,” he said.
The minister said a detail action plan in this regard would be put in place by the Board.
The draft CZMP in its report has submitted that the disposal of waste and effluents into coastal waters is a prohibited activity. It has recommended that the exiting practice of discharging untreated waste and effluents be phased out within a period not exceeding two years.
The draft also proposed that dumping of solid waste should be phased out within a year.
The NCSCM noted that the coastal zone is under increasing pressure from rapid urbanisation, development of hotels, resort, coastal erosion, saline water intrusion, illegal sand extraction, siltation in estuarine zones, insufficient facilities for ecologically sustainable tourism, etc.
“This has resulted in a rapid deterioration of coastal land and wetlands, depleting biodiversity and causing imbalances in ecological dynamics,” it added.
