Pratik Parab
pratik@herald-goa.com
The deadlines set for the commissioning of the Sewerage Treatment Plant in Margao have surpassed unacceptable limits. This time it is the Electricity Department which has played spoil sport in the entire process. The Chief Engineer of Public Works Department S R Paranjape has informed that the JICA STP 7.5 MLD Sewage Treatment Plant and the 20 MLD Sewerage and Infrastructural Development Corporation of Goa Ltd (SIDCGL) have been completed and have already been tested, but have sadly been waiting for electrical connections. The PWD Minister of Goa Sudin Dhavalikar, who had proudly promised to inaugurate and commission the Plants in March and June this year, has lots to answer in this case. The new date has been set as December or January 2017.
The officials of Sewerage Corporation and JICA have confirmed of having completed their civil and electrical works at the plant. However, the Electricity Department has been sitting over the permissions for the over two months now. The plants which were completed nearly 3 months back have been tested for its functioning and have passed the said tests. However, it has almost crossed 5 months for the promised date of commissioning that the plants lie unused. The fall-out of this was seen earlier in the Herald reports on how there seems to be no end to the releasing of sewage in the rivers and nallahs. The dredging of the river Sal has revealed that the water of Sal is battered by sewage from the town and villages.
Earlier in January the announcements of the two big sewage treatment plants were made and the promise to lay the sewage lines was also made. The deadline for the JICA STP plant was first set as March 2016 and then the Sewerage Corporation was given a June deadline by the PWD Minister Ramakrishna, alias Sudin, Dhavalikar during his visit. Surprisingly the plants have been tested as well as completed but have suffered setback due to their coordination failure with a related department.
The Additional Chief Technical Engineer of PWD Paranjape told Herald that the work was completed long back on both the plants. However, the electrical connections to the plant have still not been given. “We need an electric connection now. The estimate and all other needful paper work of estimation was also done two months back. But they have still not given the connection,” Paranjape said.
Paranjape told that they had to get generator and test the plant earlier this year. “The process of the Electricity Department to get the connection is a tedious one and takes lot of time and effort to search for executive officers itself,” he told.
The Sewerage Corporation Managing Director Arvind Patil told that even the plant of SIDGCL of 20 MLD has been waiting for the electrical connection. He told “The civil work is fully complete and minor painting of the buildings remains. The only hitch is of the electricity connection,” said Patil.
Earlier in the month of April the Sewerage Corporation Plant of 20 MLD, which is the bigger one, was claimed to be 95 per cent complete and will be completed by June. The JICA India and Goa State Pollution control board have already examined the River Sal and concluded that there was no chemical contamination of the river. However, the findings have exposed that there has been contamination of sewage and the levels of oxygen in the river is very low. Several complaints of pollution of wells streams and other water bodies due to the sewage disposal have already reached as high as the High Court in Goa. Areas like Comba, Madel, Navelim and Kharebandh have been the worst hit in the pollution and it has become imperative to get the plants functioning soon.
These plants will be enough to treat the sewage of Margao, Navelim and Fatorda and some part of Curtorim. These two plants are planned to take care of the sewage of half of Salcete Taluka.
