PONDA: The locals of Ponda taluka have slammed the authorities concerned over the lack of coordination and ill-planned digging of roads for carrying out several development works in Ponda taluka which have resulted in water shortage.

Tulshidas Naik, a resident of Bandora said, “A few months ago, the road was hot mixed at Daag but now the same has been dug yet again for laying sewer lines. A few metres away, the trenches have been dug for laying power cables. Continuous digging work on hot mixed roads is a waste of people’s money.”

He said, “People are frustrated on account of damage to water pipelines at several places due to the digging works for development works. Good roads have been damaged which has caused undue hardship to motorists. The authorities need to supervise the workers in carrying out work.”

Naik said that on Thursday the water pipe was damaged while carrying out digging work for laying underground power cables at Kapileshwari junction. He said on account of frequent damage to water pipelines people face water crises for four days.

Another local Krishna Naik said that the workers engaged in the digging work on Thursday damaged the water pipeline due to which lakhs of litres was wasted for over five hours. Strangely, the PWD office is located just 200 metres away but the water supply was not stopped. Following complaints from the locals, the officials rushed to the site and plugged the leakages and commenced repair work.

On Wednesday, another pipeline was damaged at Curti. Social worker Viraj Sapre said Pondaites face a water crisis due to lack of coordination between various departments. Whenever roads are dug, the officials of PWD, sewerage corp, Electricity Dept and natural gas authorities should coordinate to ensure that underground pipelines are not damaged and people do not suffer from water shortage.