PANJIM: Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) has claimed it is on the verge of completing the cleaning and desilting of St Inez Creek. This initiative involves various components which will eventually revitalize the 3.5 km stretch of the creek, IPSCDL has claimed.
These claims are made even as the St Inez creek has been festering for decades. The entire creek is not only polluted but the blockage of smooth flow of water from the creek leads to flooding of fields in Taleigao. Citizens are generally skeptical of the work which has been previously done on the creek and the present IPSCDL claims.
IPSCDL claims, this project, which was carried out in consultation with the Water Resource Department (WRD) had been initiated earlier this week and is nearing completion ahead of the monsoons, which it hoped will play a significant role in smooth flow of storm water to River Mandovi.
During the exercise a lot of manpower and machinery were pressed into operation, including amphibious excavators, to remove approximately 71,000 cubic meters of debris, silt and sand from the creek. The routine desilting and cleaning of St Inez Creek is essential for preventing blockages and mitigating flood risks during the monsoon season. This initiative is a key component of the Smart City project aimed at rejuvenating the St Inez Creek, IPSCDL claimed.
The project’s broad scope included: Desilting and deepening St Inez creek along its 3.5-kilometer length; strengthening the creek’s side banks with composite walls to prevent collapse, erosion, encroachment, and to improve the waterway from Taleigao Camrabhat to Panjim, D B Marg.
It also includes constructing storage structures for aeration and online treatment to enhance water quality, IPSCDL claimed.
Four time former Mayor and seven time Councillor Surendra Furtado said, “Till the time all sewage connections of houses and establishments next to the creek which unload the sewage into the creek are sealed, how is the Smart City Board saying the creek will be rejuvenated?”
Former CCP Councillor Patricio Pinto said, “I have my doubts about their claims of rejuvenation of the St Inez Creek. Unless the sewage water flowing into the creek is stopped and plants and hutments are removed, there can be no rejuvenation. Secondly the mouths of the creek at two places –near the old Goa Medical College and the Sports Authority of Goa have to be opened. They have only built the walls. I don’t know where they have desilted. This can be done anytime. I have seen the water near the Fire Services Department is green. Infact the creek is dying.”
Panjim resident Armando Gonsalves, whose house is bang on the banks of the creek at Campal says, “Desilting is nothing new. About one and half year back, they had done so and destroyed my garden. Going by their track record ,I am pessimistic. They have to open the waterway near the SAG and Old GMC. If not there is no rejuvenation and water will not flow. Nothing will come out, it is government banter. People are still dumping sewage. There is a lot of encroachment of the creek by dumping mud into the creek. I’m not against the walls they have constructed, but super-dredging needs to be done. Don’t put lipstick and say you have done rejuvenation.”
