TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Hotels and restaurants dotting the banks of River Sal at Mobor-Cavelossim and along the Assolna-Velim belt will soon come under the scanner of the Goa State Pollution Control Board against the backdrop of large scale death of clams in the river.
When GSPCB Chairman Jose Manuel Noronha made his presence felt on the banks of River Sal on the Mobor side, he found a huge pipeline, connecting a starred hotel to the river. Though Noronha could not ascertain the exact purpose behind laying the pipeline, he is understood to have suggested to his subordinates the need to check the hotels and restaurants on arrangements made to treat and dispose of sewage generated in the establishments.
The GSPCB is awaiting report on the water samples collected from River Sal to initiate further action into the death and extinction of clams from the River Sal bed. “We have collected water samples to ascertain the metal content in the river as well as its organic content. The samples have been despatched to Mumbai as a matter of caution and are also being tested in our lab. We will initiate further action based on the test reports”, Noronha told Herald.
Noronha is aware that things may not be rosy in many of the hotels and business establishments on the sewage disposal front as experts have pointed fingers at rampant sewage disposal in the river as being the main cause of the mortality. “If the reports suggest high biological oxygen demand in the river water, then we will have to ascertain the source of sewage finding its way in the river”, Noronha said.
Sources stated though many
