CALANGUTE: The Calangute gram sabha on Sunday unanimously opposed a proposal to install a 1.5 km pipeline to take treated sewage from the Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) at Baga into the sea.
Activist Premanand Divkar said they had learnt that the move to install the pipeline was proposed at a recent meeting between Calangute MLA Michael Lobo, PWD officers and other authorities. “If the pipeline is going into the sea, then we have to object as the Baga beach will get destroyed,” Divkar charged.
Sarpanch Joseph Sequeira informed the gram sabha that the panchayat was kept in the dark about the proposed pipeline, adding that he had also heard about the moves to do so. “We were not called for the meeting where the proposal was discussed. The MLA made the statement at his level and I have written to the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) and other authorities that we are objecting to it,” the Sarpanch said.
Sequeira said the panchayat was told that there would be a “reverse pipeline to take the treated sewage water to Saligao when the sewerage project was initiated in 2010 by two experts who had come from the UK and Switzerland.”
“After the STP was found releasing untreated sewage in the Baga river, it was directed to stop from doing so and we had written to the GSPCB to inquire into the issue,” said Sequeira
The Sarpanch stated that the pollution levels in Baga river were already high because of hotels discharging sewage in it and said that the panchayat had written to the GSPCB to initiate action against the violators. “The GSPCB had conducted an inspection in November last year and through testing by chemical and biological parameters, it was observed that the faecal coliform levels were beyond permissible limits in Calangute and Baga,” he said.
Villagers also demanded that the panchayat pass a resolution to stop the ground at Calangute Association being used as a parking area and to hand it back to the association for sports activities.