At its board meeting on Thursday, the GSPCB resolved to ask the Department of Science, Technology and Environment (DSTE) to conduct a year-long study to ascertain the carrying capacity of various rivers. The DSTE will have to float an Expression of Interest to select a consultant to undertake such a study.
GSPCB has also decided to work out remedial measures in case of those river basins, wherein the board has granted Consent to Operate to either casinos, jetties or marinas and whose carrying capacity has exceeded the limit.
“The board receives numerous applications pertaining to establishing floating pontoons, marinas, jetties, houseboats, etc in various rivers in the state,” GSPCB chairman Jose Manuel Noronha told the media after a meeting.
“In such a situation, it becomes important to carry out the carrying capacity study of various rivers before granting fresh permissions. The carrying capacity study is important to plan the optimal number of projects which can be based in a river basin,” he said, adding ‘pending the conduct of the study, no new permissions of any kind of projects in the rivers would be allowed’.
The study will include the base-line study of water quality, contamination of water, impact on river bodies due to existing facilities and the likely impact of new projects.
