JULIO D’SILVA
juliod’silva@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: The Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMP) that have been sent to only 22 of the 30 panchayats in Salcete are full of errors and clearly indicate that an age old base plan has been used on which Google images are superimposed.
One of the major mistakes committed by National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), the Chennai based company, that prepared the plans is that it has named River Zuari that borders a portion of Salcete as “Mandavi” river which is inexcusable for a company that was paid Rs 2 crore to prepare the plans.
Various roads and even bridges like the Borim bridge are not shown on the CZMPs implying that old maps were used as base maps and it is believed that the survey plan of 1974 was used for the purpose. As a result many houses are not shown on the map.
Ramiro Monteiro from Loutolim pointed out that the main highway passing through the village and the Borim Bridge have not been shown.
“The ferry ramps are not shown in our village map but Chowgule’s workshop has been shown as a shipyard,” he said.
The high tide line for rivers is supposed to be either half the width of the river or 100 mts whichever is less, but the CZMPs have shown the high tide line for rivers like Zuari and Kushawati in an arbitrary manner sometimes extending even up to 300 mts away from the banks.
Another major mistake found in most of the maps is that fallow fields have been shown to have mangrove which indicates that they have relied on Google imagery and not visited the site as field lying fallow have wild growth in them which has been shown to be mangrove.
“This is very dangerous as tomorrow if the farmer wants to cultivate his land, he will not be allowed to do so on grounds that it has mangroves there,” pointed out Savio Santos from Carmona who also revealed that the fields behind the Carmona church are shown to have mangrove.
Savio also pointed out that reference plans like the previous CZMP or the topo sheets are not available to compare the projections made in the present draft CZMP. “The authorities have to show us the topo maps so that we can come to a well studied conclusion,” he said while pointing out that the hazard line has still not been prepared by the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority.
“In Chandor and Guirdolim too fallow fields have been shown as mangrove, besides, of course showing the high tide line for River Kushawati to be beyond 100 mts,” said Jose Coutinho from Chandor.
Interestingly, River Sal that originates in Verna and flows to the Arabian Sea at Cavelossim has been shown only from Benaulim flowing to the west while it is not shown in the maps of Margao, Nuvem and Verna through which it flows.
On the coastline, the maps have failed to show the fishing villages or places used by the folks for their day to day activity. For example, at Benaulim the Vadi beach which is teeming with fishing activity as fishermen keep their boats there or mend their nets there is shown just as a beach.
However, the area which is a little away from the beach is shown as a fishing village. “The fishing activity on the beach is deliberately not shown with an ulterior motive to drive away the locals from that area where somebody must be planning to construct a hotel,” said Abhijit Prabhudessai of the Rainbow Warriors who has been educating many villagers about the CZMP.
Interestingly, even in Betalbatim the fishing area has not been shown and all along the coastline of Salcete, fish breeding sites have not been shown in the plan.
Very surprisingly the entire Ilha de Rachol has been shown as Coastal Regulation Zone without considering the fact that there are houses existing for centuries in the island.
“People of Rachol are in the fishing trade and practically every household owns a boat or a canoe and they live on the fish they harvest and instead of showing the island as a fishing village they have shown it as CRZ,” pointed out MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco who cautioned that in the near future people’s houses may be demolished on grounds that they are coming within CRZ.
Various villages have had extraordinary gram sabhas to object to the CZMP on grounds that neither they nor the panchayats were consulted while they were prepared and have demanded that either the NIO or the Goa University prepare the plans after consulting local bodies including tenants associations.
The following eight villages are neither along the coast nor have rivers passing through them: Aquem Baixo, Davorlim Dicarpale, Nuvem, Paroda, Rumdamol Davorlim, Sao Jose de Areal, Sarzora, and Seraulim. As such, CZMPs have not been prepared.
