NESHWIN ALMEIDA
MARGAO: The Goan economy seems to thrive on mining, tourism and real estate but it all seems to have come to a standstill with the mining ban, tourism hit by garbage menace and escalating prices and real estate hit by drop in prices and Goa’s bad infrastructure.
While the thrust this World Environment Day was to organize beach cleaning drives and grow a few trees, Goa seems to face a huge problem with sustaining its environment. Goa’s ecology seems to diminishing and the biggest problem could well be the government’s lackluster attitude towards sustainable development, all this against the backdrop of corruption.
St Andre legislator Vishnu Wagh who has been fighting his own government by standing up against marinas in the Zuari river and seaplanes since they would affect the local fishermen and their livelihood said, “Amongst our ancestors there was a huge equilibrium between environment and man. Even on open spaces we would grow coconut plantations, mango trees and the focus was on ecology and adding to the greenery and that was part of development besides construction. Today development is destruction. There’s nothing done in terms of sustainability.”
Wagh also pointed out that, every village in the past had its own ecosystems and mini forest that would bring balance to the villages but today those ideas have been defeated for construction and commercialization. The key here is to have the Regional Plan opened up keep green zones and not just development zones, he said hoping that Goans will reverse from their development mindset.
Similarly activist Claude Alvares who fought the mining lobby to curb destruction from over-exploitation and illegal mining asserted, “Goa is a small place with a small population of just 1.5 million. And here you’re trying to create room for three million tourists. All this when you have not planned for your own 1.5 million population, if that’s the case, how can one plan for that additional three million?”
Alvares believes that Goa is breaking down and has overburdened its environment. The government needs to protect us from this over-exploitation before we degenerate further and become like the Ganga river, where the damage is irreversible. It’s the government who needs to take steps, it’s not always the local population that should come out on the streets to oppose illegal construction by the government, illegal mining approved by the government or it should not always be the population running to the Green tribunal. He feels the government should do all this to protect the environment.
Goa State Pollution Control Board Chairman Jose Manuel Noronha said that this year’s theme of World Environment Day is saying no to consumerism. “All what we should say or understand is not to own too much and overuse our natural resources. We need to stop overusing petrol, fuels, stop food wastage, stop owning extra homes and constructing only when we own less, the we could talk of sustainability,” stated Noronha. He pointed out that India alarmingly produces 1.7 tons of carbon dioxide per capita per person which is alarming.
Abhijeet Prabhudessai who fight’s for his land and opposes anything alien to be setup in Goa and is known as a crusader for comunidade land, points out that what’s important is an actual study regarding the carrying capacity of garbage, mining, tourism, roadways, industry and construction. And that should be allowed in a sustainable manner. It’s incorrect to rip our hills, forest, water bodies to make way for road-widening, highways, building, golf courses, high-rise mega projects and polluting industry.
Prabhudessai says that Goa is struggling with its environment and polluted water bodies, dying fisheries, contamination of fields is only because we have exceeded our carrying capacity.
“All sectors of development are today fighting for the same land with flora and fauna that we need to conserve. Our Western Ghats have unique species that need to be preserved but our focus is mining on our Western Ghats. We’ve favored lobbies and development We need to reverse back at some stage and its going take a strong will power to stay away from corruption and money and not to sell ourselves out,” concluded Prabhudessai.
Judith Almeida is another such activist fighting the hotel lobby to save the sand dunes in Colva, fighting with shack owners to stop contaminating the Colva creek, fighting with the Tourism Department to disallow construction in the coastal regulatory zones.
“Decisions of our ministers and corruption has changed Goa. Giving unreasonable construction licenses, not punishing violators who release sewage in the open, giving permissions to develop in the CRZ area is what led to the mess,” she said.
“But we have a huge need to look into in terms of global warming, climate change and conserving nature which Bismarck Dias is doing. “The world is at a crossroads introspecting and getting concerned about our environment. The pope, the global leaders and everybody is discussing what’s happening with our climate,” stated Dias.
“It’s good that Goans are now aware of the damage we have done to our ecology and doing their bit. But major disasters are looming. Look at it this way, there’s 8,000 colonies bacteria in 100ml of water in our rivers as per media reports and what is our government doing? We need to take these reports to the NGT and blast the guys who are responsible for this pollution,” he said.
Nathaniel D’Costa, a 28-year old media manager with a football agency questions Goans if we really need luxurious hotels, if we really need four-lane roads, if we really need concrete jetties and million tonnes of mining. He feels we have to choose the serenity and greenery that Goa always has.
