PONDA: Recollecting the July 23, last year’s flood disaster, Khandepar and Usgao locals on Tuesday urged the Water Resources Department to learn a lesson from the episode and adopt safety measures including desilting wherever required in the river basin to prevent flooding of Khandepar, Ganjem River in monsoon.
The last year’s flooding situation caused a huge loss of property including collapse of houses.
It may be recalled both the tributaries of Mhadei River flowing from Sattari, Ponda Talukas created a havoc at Usgao-Ganjem, Murdi-Khandepar, Khandola, Vagurme and Savoiverem with several houses on the bank of river flooding and many collapsing at Usgao-Ganjem and Khandepar.
Even the traffic on national highway at Khandepar was paralysed for an entire day as the roads were flooded with river water.
Environmentalist Sandeep Parkar said, “At Khandepar, there may be several reasons for flooding but one reason is that thousands of truck-load mud was dumped in Khandepar River basin during the national highway and bridge constructions three years back and following his complaint the government had asked the contractor to remove the mud from the river basin. However, the contractor for namesake had removed the outer layer and most of the mud remained in the river basin.”
“At least 50 metres of land from the river bank should be buffer zone as per the prevailing law. However, there are many violations taking place against which action is needed from the concerned authorities. Even the nullahs culminating into Khandepar River are filled with mud, which need to be desilted. All the measures including desilting of river should be undertaken before monsoon to prevent incidents such as flooding and house collapse, learning lesson from the past,” Parkar said.
The Ponda Disaster Management team inspection report revealed that in July 23, 2021 due to flooding, Ganjem-Usgao was worst hit followed by Khandepar and parts of Priol in Ponda Taluka.
