Rains cause damage to property, trigger landslides

PANJIM, JUNE 26
Incessant rains caused extensive damage to property and essential services all over the State on Saturday.
While two landslides were reported in Canaona taluka, the Margao-Quepem road was inundated at three places in Paroda.
The fire services had to attend to numerous incidents all over the State, while authorities were also busy restoring electricity and other services that were either damaged or disrupted by the rains.
BICHOLIM
Torrential rains accompanied by cyclonic winds damaged property in various parts of Bicholim taluka.
While the property loss is estimated at Rs 3 lakh, water levels in the river rose by a metre but there is no immediate danger of floods in the taluka.
At Ambekarwada-Amona, a tamrind tree uprooted and fell on a house, causing a loss to
Satyawati Parwar (Rs 50,000) and Deepesh Parwar (Rs 25,000).
At Shirgao-Bicholim, an age-old banyan tree got uprooted on Friday night. “The tree was very old and had even withstood the large flames of the homkund below it for last the last many decades,” said Lairai Devasthan priest Vassudev Joshi.
“The tree was a major attraction for devotees who would attend the famous Lairai Jatra,” added the Devasthan President Digambar Gaonkar.
A number of trees also uprooted at Karapur, Sarvan, Mulgao, Advalpal, Bicholim, Sanquelim, Amona and surrounding areas, causing a combined loss of about Rs 2.25 lakh.
“Though the water level from the river has increased by a metre, there is no danger of floods as there are no rains in the Virdi Ghats. The Flood and Disaster Management Cell at Bicholim is looking after the problem and everything is under control,” said Bicholim Mamlatdar Pramod Bhat.
Incidentally, the PWD and WRD have failed t remove the remaining mud from the basin of the Bicholim River, due to which there is still a danger of floods in the area.
At Bicholim, water entered in low-lying areas in Mandrekarwada, Goankarwada and Bandarwada.

VASCO
A car was damaged, while electricity was disrupted when an age-old tree got uprooted at Swatantrapath road, as heavy rains affected normal life in the port town on Saturday.
This is second such incident of a tree getting uprooted at Swatantrapath road within eight days, after an Ashoka tree got uprooted and damaged an electricity pole.
Since the last few years, Ashoka trees along the Swatantrapath – which commences from the St Andrew Junction till the Indian Oil Limited junction – have begun showing signs of aging. About 138 Ashoka trees, which were planted about 50 years ago, have now been reduced to 125 along the road.
“These trees must be over 50 years old and during the last few years, one or two are uprooted,” said city councilor Krishna Salkar.
Meanwhile, trees were uprooted in different parts of Mormugao taluka, while water logging was reported at the Merces Nullah on Saturday morning.
Vasco fire services was kept on its toes since early morning and attended to eight calls. Fire services teams cleared the four trees that were uprooted at Vasco, Vollant, Matvem-Dabolim and Baina, and cleared the dirt from Merces Nullah that was flowing at the danger mark.
Speaking to Herald, Vasco Fire Inspector Preetam Bandekar informed that there were no major floods in Vasco or surrounding areas.
“However, water-logging was reported at Merces as the Nullah was flowing at the danger mark,” he said.
The Mormugao deputy collector, who is keeping track on the impact of the monsoon, said water began to subside within a few hours at the Merces Nullah.
However, authorities were on high alert after reports were initially flashed that some houses at Merces and Baina were flooded due to continuous showers.
 QUEPEM
The Quepem-Margao highway was submerged at Paroda on Saturday morning, paralyzing traffic along the route.
The Kushawati River was flooded and the road was submerged, forcing authorities to divert Margao-bound traffic via Amona and Chandor.
The Quepem-Margao highway submerged at three places, at Karale, near the Paroda temple and near the Paroda Church. The worst affected were school children from Mule, Karale and other places, as they struggled to reach the Immaculate Conception High School, located on the other side of the Kushawati River.
Incidentally, the area around Kushawati River regularly gets flooded at Paroda in July or August, but this time, the area got flooded in June itself.
“In my entire life, I have never seen the Kushawati River getting flooded in June,” recalled Joazinho D’Cunha (60), who resides along the banks of the Kushawati River.
“The Kushawati River normally gets flooded either in July or August and that too, if it rains heavily for two to three successive days. The present situation indicates that there is something wrong,” D’Cunha added.
Rama Velip of Colomba told Herald that the flooding of Kushawati River was not merely due to the rains.
“The heavy siltation in the river is due to the release of water from the mining ponds of the mines operating in Rivona, Colomba, Cavrem, Maina,” claimed Velip.
“When it rains heavily, a lot of rain water gets accumulated in the mining ponds and in order to avoid unwarranted damage to the mining pond/pit, mining companies divert the water from the mining pond into the Kushawati River or into its tributaries, thereby cause floods in the Kushawati River,” he added.
“The villagers of Colomba have filed a writ petition in the High Court highlighting these issues,” said Rama.
Meanwhile, heavy rains caused damaged to properties at Cacora, Xelvona and Amona. At Xelvona, the house of one Subhash Chadra Dessai was flooded with water. At Cacora, a portion of the house of Rosita Dias collapsed, causing a loss of about Rs 35,000. In Amona, the house of one Julio Dias was also damaged due to the heavy rains.
 
BARDEZ
Heavy rains on Saturday affected normal life all over in Bardez taluka.
The Mapusa Municipal market got flooded in the morning and the water nearly entered the shops in the market.
Fearing damage to their goods, some shopkeepers did not open their shops in the morning till the rains subsided. Rains however damaged the goods of many hawkers and roadside vendors.
Business was badly affected as customers refrained from visiting shops due to the ankle deep water in the market. The water however receded later in the afternoon.
The area near the Bodgeshwar temple was submerged and the road leading to the temple was not visible for some time.
The Kadamba bus stand was also partially flooded and passengers had a tough time in trying to catch their buses.
“The market got flooded because the drains were not cleaned properly by the contractor appointed by the Mapusa Municipal Council,” claimed President of the Mapusa Municipal Market Yeshwant Gaudalker.
“There was no supervision by the MMC while the drains were being cleaned. We had brought this fact to the notice of municipal authorities prior to the monsoon and had even predicted that the market would be flooded during monsoon. But MMC authorities did not bother and as a result, shopkeepers have had to bear the fury of rains.”
“Due to the poor maintenance of the municipal building, the walls and the roof at some of the shops are in a bad shape and water has begun seeping into the shops,” said Gaudalker.
Meanwhile, the fields near the Guirim panchyat, opposite Green Park Hotel were inundated and the water was flowing over the road.
The highway was also water-logged near the ICCI ATM at Porvorim, causing hardship to motorists along the highway. A long traffic jam was witnessed in the morning and the queue of vehicles was seen right up to the Porvorim church.

CANACONA
Torrential rains played havoc on Saturday as Canaona taluka witnessed two landslides, trees getting uprooted, snapping of electricity wires and flooding of several low lying areas in the taluka.
The electricity alignments snapped at around 12 places in Colomb, Patnem, Tarir and Chaudi since the Friday night, putting most of these municipal areas in darkness.
In Patnem area, all electrical wires came down on the road, after a tree branch fell on them.  
A few residents from these areas also complained of a power surge on Friday night destroying their electronic gadgets like computers, TV’s and fridges.
Personnel from electricity department in separate groups were seen in different locations restoring the disrupted services and replacing most alignments with new wires since Saturday morning.
In one of the major landslides at Kindlem, a recently built house miraculously escaped major damages after huge boulders from the nearby cliff came crashing down and destroyed a side staircase of the house belonging to one Anand Krishna Dessai.
There was no one in the house when the landslide took place. One Dinesh Dessai, who resides a little away, came running on hearing the huge sound of boulders coming down due to the landslide and alerted the owners of the house at their workplace.
Deputy Collector Deepak Dessai and Canacona Mamlatdar Chandrakant Shetkar visited the site. Nodal officer of Canacona Municipality Disaster Management Committee Yesso Dessai was present at the site, while a JCB was pressed into service to clear the debris.
Another landslide was reported at Loliem village, where a 3-year-old retaining wall constructed near Damodar School collapsed, bringing huge mud on the road.
Fire service personnel had to rush early morning at Karmalghat to clear a tree which fell on the highway, while a little later the team had to rush at Satorlim-Gaondongrim to clear a huge cashew tree that uprooted and destroyed the residential house of one Bhisso Laximan Gaonkar.
Fire personnel were also kept busy in clearing trees which fell on roads at Maxem, Poinguinim and other interiors of Canacona taluka.
Floods were witnessed in several low lying areas, while most paddy fields remained inundated in flood waters throughout the day at several places in Agonda, Devabhaga-Palolem, Talpona, Galgibaga, while all the three major rivers, Talpona, Galgibaga and Saleri flowed a dangerously high levels.
Some schools also sent students home early as the floodwater inundated more low lying areas.
The Chapoli dam has also witnessed a huge surge in water levels, where the reservoir received .60 RL on the single day, taking the total water level to 29.75RL, which is higher than the last year’s 29.09 RL recorded at this time of the year.

(With inputs from Vishant Vaze, Taurappa Lamani, John Fernandes, Anil Shankhwalkar and Kathy Pereira)