The Chief Minister accorded top most priority to restore the pristine glory of Salcete’s life line after he was moved by the extent of contamination of the river and even went to the extent of saying that the River Sal was worse than the St Inez creek. In fact, Parrikar had promised to cut the source of pollution – untreated sewage flowing into the river — within a year’s time.
Million of litres of untreated sewage continue to find its way into the river from the commercial capital, with Margao’s underground sewage project dragging on for the last 30 years. Last year, the chief minister had laid the foundation stone for a new 20 MLD sewage treatment plant and a pumping station project aimed at treating the raw sewage at Khareband and near Kudchadkar hospital in a bid to arrest the flow of untreated sewage in the river. While work on the 22 MLD STP has commenced, the government has abandoned the pumping station project in favour of a natural system. The end result being that untreated sewage water continues to flow into the once picturesque Salpem lake and the River Sal.
An inspection of the river Sal carried out at the instance of Fisheires Minister, Avertano Furtado and Benaulim MLA Caitu Silva along with officials in June last has not changed the ground reality. Herald inquiries have only revealed that an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study is presently underway and it’s not clear yet how the government will go about the river cleanup operation.
