India’s Silicon Valley Bengaluru is currently in the news. The Bellandur Lake in the capital of Karnataka has now gone from foam to fire as toxic smoke choked the whole city, two weeks back.
Factories waste and general sewage have led to extreme levels of water pollution in how much ever lakes are left in the city.
The incident reported on February 17 has dragged our eyes to putrid St Inez creek flowing in the heart of the Capital city Panjim, which is highly contaminated with the raw sewage.
Though the experts have turned down the possibility of a Bellandur Lake like situation, it has warned that St Inez creek is a ‘health hazard’ bomb, which the authorities have been ignoring for past several decades. Haphazard development along the bank of the creek and increasing shanties, involved in direct release of raw sewage into creek water and the stagnation of water deprived of oxygen has turned this creek a toxic chamber.
The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), the only authority that took keen interest to purify the contaminated water body (which is also now lying low due to administrative issues) in their various studies have revealed that the dissolved oxygen (DO) is almost nil in most of the points and less than 5ppm in the remaining.
There is no aquatic life, turbidity is high and there is also foul smell. DO is one of the most important indicators of the quality of water and its availability is vital for aquatic life.
For good quality water, the dissolved oxygen level should be more than 5 ppm.
Former chairman of GSPCB Jose Manuel Noronha said that the creek is not prone to release of toxic smoke or catching fire, as this type of incidents occur due to release of hazardous industrial waste in the river or lake water. “You don’t find any industrial unit located along the St Inez creek,” he explains.
“But, definitely, the creek is a health hazard. Discharge of raw sewage by the dwellings located along the bank of the creek, has resulted into polluting the creek water,” said Noronha, who has closely monitored the creek conditions and introduced measures like aeration to improve the quality of the water.
“The St Inez creek in its present state is found contaminated with wastes such as construction debris, plastic garbage, organic garbage, tyres and sewage. The creek is heavily silted, that there is no free movement of water,” the study conducted by GSPCB on the creek water samplings last year, reads.
The faecal coliform presence in the water, which has to be zero, was found to be as high as 9,20,000 per 100ML of water. The bacterium is caused by the release of untreated sewage. “Presence of faecal coliform in water indicates that water contain microorganisms harmful to human health,” the study had revealed.
The situation must have worsened today, as no steps of whatsoever nature being taken to improve the water quality and increase the oxygen level.
The creek originates from Taleigao through Camrabhat, Tamddi Mati, Tonca and continues to stumble past behind the Military Hospital, Don Bosco School and ESG complex, from where it empties itself out into the Mandovi River.
An official attached to Environment Department, on the request of anonymity explains that the stagnation of water deprived of oxygen has made this creek into a major health hazard.
“The aquifer has become polluted with black Iron Sulphide and well water has become unusable. The water in wells located along side of creek is highly polluted and not consumable anymore,” officer stated.
The cleanliness and beautification of the putrid Portuguese era St Inez creek is indeed a political-socio-economic problem. Despite pollution authority reports clearly indicating that the hutments, residential complexes and commercial establishments located along the creek are responsible for its contamination, the Government in all, is laying low to act upon these violators. The hutments-majority of which are occupied by migrants- looked a strong vote bank by the councilors.
The Goa Rehabilitation Board (GRB) during their survey, nearly three years back, had identified nearly 71 shanties located along the bank of the creek for immediate rehabilitation, as they were involved in direct release of sewage into the creek water. Even today, the government is sitting with the report with shanties continuing to mushroom along the bank.
“These are voters of different councilors and so also of political parties. When we start to act, they approach the local councilor or MLA for relaxation. The shanties here are a vote bank and no councilor would like to act. They can only show off their concern,” GRB official said.
Last year, the civic body made an attempt to weed the creek using Amphibian machine; however, it also did not give results. The age-old creek, is still crying for attention, with successive governments, MLAs and the civic body showing the least concern.
