TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
CALANGUTE: Claiming that water bodies in Calangute and Baga area have been polluted due to waste water released by the hotel industry, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday stated that a proposed sewerage treatment project for the area will help stop further pollution of water.
Parrikar was speaking after laying the foundation stone for the sewer network in north coastal belt at Calangute on Tuesday.
“The sewerage treatment project which will be completed by 2015 will help to stop the further pollution of water,” he said.
Parrikar said sewerage is a major problem faced by some major places in the State. “Construction of sewerage treatment plants in these places will help to prevent the contamination of ground water,” he added.
“The Rs 103 crore project for Calangute will be set up on similar technology being used in Panjim through the experts and higher quality. If need be, water could be treated for use at other purposes other than drinking,” he said, while addressing the villagers at Calangute Association grounds.
“The system is being put in place to get rid of water contamination at ground level which has polluted the wells in Calangute. The sewer network system could well address the contamination of ground water, but is not an instant solution,” added Parrikar.
At the request of Calangute MLA Michael Lobo to have a garbage treatment plant for Calangute and surrounding villages, Parrikar assured to look into the matter and come up with a collective decision during the assembly session.
“If we have sewer network or garbage treatment plants in the State, we should realize the importance of doing away with the use of plastic in our day-to-day life and I assure to come up with some sort of mechanism to put an end to use of plastics in Goa,” he added.
PWD Minister Sudhin Dhavlikar highlighted the pros and cons of the sewer network project for north coastal belt. “The project for Calangute-Baga has been undertaken by availing loan from JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). The project will be divided in three zones for Calangute benefiting about 40,000 villagers besides the tourists.”
“It will benefit hotels, restaurants, guest houses, etc, and the project will be completed by 2015,” he said and advised the villagers to use tap water judiciously and avoid wastage of water as government spends Rs 12 per cubic meter of water per person.
MLA Lobo said the sewage treatment plant was the need of the hour in Calangute as wells were polluted and it will bring relief to the villagers and hoteliers, guest house owners and restaurants.
Joseph Sequeira and Abeline Menezes also spoke on the occasion. Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral, Principal Secretary PWD R K Verma, Chief Engineer PWD Dattaprasad Borkar, and others were present on the occasion.
