Team Herald
PONDA: Villagers from Usgao, Ponda, on Friday noticed that the Opa River had once again turned red with muddy water, and on investigating, found that earth-movers engaged in a construction project near the river were digging up and dumping large amounts of red soil and rocks into the water. Even as some residents complained that they were receiving muddy water from their taps, the villagers called reporters to the site, alleging that the government was responsible for the illegal landfilling of the river, near the Opa Reservoir.
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Earlier, there were complaints of the river being sullied with mud, and the red water making its way to the homes of the villagers- but this was due to the pollution of the river, allegedly due to mining activities. On Friday, a group of villagers who gathered near the reservoir said that the excavation of the river bank has been ongoing for the past eight days. “They should transport the excavated soil by trucks and dump it elsewhere. The Opa River has now turned red due to the mud being dumped into it since last week,” said a villager. “Already, the river basin is filled with mud and silt. If excavated mud and boulders are dumped into the river, it will create an adverse effect on the environment and also cause flooding in the low-lying areas at Usgao and Khandepar,” said environmentalist Sandeep Parkar.
Upon receiving information from locals residing at the other end of the river, Parkar complained to a senior official from the Water Resources Department, who assured that he would conduct an inspection at the site.
When contacted, a PWD official said that the excavation was done for the construction of an additional pumping house for the Opa Water Treatment Plant. He also said that the mud would be removed at the time of constructing the coffer dam, in the Opa reservoir.
Parkar recalled that during the construction of a bridge at Khandepar, thousands of truckloads of mud were dumped into the river basin, and only removed after
several plaints.
