CALANGUTE: Heavy rainfall that battered the State over the last days has not only caused flood-like conditions in several talukas but it is Guirim in Bardez that has paid the maximum price for the vagaries of nature. The monstrous development projects along the highway have made matters worse for the villagers, farmers and motorists.
Fields in the village have now gone underwater and the rains had also submerged roads, homes and panchayat ghar, leading to irreparable damage to local farmers.
Locals and some panchas blamed the improper development along the Highway without application of mind was the main cause of the disaster.
“The large-scale development projects of the national highway with its flyovers, the water treatment plant and sewerage treatment plant coming up in the fields and the elevated corridor work which started recently, all of which have resulted in a large amount of debris being dumped in the area, have been the primary cause of the recent flooding of the highway and other roads in Guirim and surrounding areas,” locals and Guirim panchayat members have said.
“We cannot do anything because all these projects are by the WRD and other government agencies. Earlier whenever water had accumulated in the fields, it would recede within a day or two but now there are blocks everywhere,” said Guirim sarpanch Babaji Gadekar expressing his helplessness. .
Gadekar said the water from the Guirim nullahs drains into the neighbouring Tar river, but when the WRD laid new water pipelines, the flow was affected. The new highway and flyovers also blocked the old water channels. “Recently one cross-drain was constructed across the highway, but we need a few more cross-drains,” he said.
He said the Tar river itself has not been desilted, especially further downstream in Moira because of which the river water also overflows into the surrounding low-lying areas. “All these are state government works,” he said.
During the recent flooding, a large number of vehicles had been stranded in the flood waters at Guirim with some even being hauled to safer ground using small boats by local fishermen following the incessant downpour.
The area had also been flooded in the heavy rains on June 9, disrupting traffic on the national highway at Guirim junction. Commuters had a harrowing time after the service road was partially washed away when the nullah in the area overflowed at the Guirim flyover.
Saligao MLA Kedar Naik claimed that people have been filling up the low-lying fields all around the area. “If you go to see, a lot of people have been filling the fields with mud and that has reduced and blocked the area for the water to flow. The situation will get worse in future if the land-filling continues like this,” he said.
The state government had last year announced a Rs 41cr project to desilt the Tar river, but it has not yet been implemented.