MARGAO: Flowing sewage, muddy water and filthy smells is the flavour of the month in Margao Municipal areas.
Sewage flowing from drains on to footpaths, sewage from hospitals flowing on to roads and pipeline damages by construction and muddy water flowing into the line are the three glaring examples how a town shouldn’t function.
The drain at the Kurtarkar Commerce Centre is discharging filthy sewage from its drains. This sewage (see picture) accumulates on the road side and smells day and night.
People from the building have been walking through and parking their vehicles in the same sewage for months now. This being in the centre of the city has surprised all the people on why there has been no action.
Locals informed that for the past many years, the building has been releasing sewage into the drains and when the drain gets choked they built a septic tank which gets full within a year now.
Yet another example of filthy sewage is surprisingly of a hospital in Pajifond. Horizon Hospital has a tank in its parking area and when the tank is filled, the sewage flows on to the road. On Saturday, the sewage was flowing on to the road, which the locals claim is a regular feature.
Third and the worst case of negligence by authorities and a developer in Pajifond area is of allowing muddy water enter into the domestic taps.
The Pajifond people have been drinking muddy water for nearly 2-3 weeks due to a gross negligence by a developer.
During excavation, the developer reportedly punctured the water pipeline and did not repair it for weeks. This muddy water entered into the waterline thereby contaminating the tap water. Reports suggest that people were forced to buy clean water and many also faced health problems due to the same.
Speaking on this issue RTI activist Sriram Raiturkar said, “No authority takes any cognizance of the complaints of general public. I have never seen a hotel being sealed for discharge of sewage into drains. On the contrary, incidents of municipal body directing its team to release sewage from hotels into drains, has been sadly recorded in the past.”
The flow of sewage is not a new thing for MMC and these are just two new cases following the many cases of past.
