Team Herald
VASCO: Amid the decibel at the MPT hearing(s), the voice of a teenager stood out clearly on Friday. The damage that had happened and the imminent danger that was set to cast its spell on Vasco and gradually to other parts of Goa were the peg of his discussion. A Class 11 student from Vasco grabbed the limelight and stood “tall” on the podium. He critically bisected the hazardous impact of coal pollution in the port city and appealed to the authorities not to give further expansion permission to MPT.
Teenager Sherwyn Savio Correia, the youngest person to stand up against the pollution menace in Vasco said, “Today I am speaking on behalf of the youth and children of Vasco and Mormugão taluka. My school (St. Andrew’s Higher Secondary School) is located just across the road and everyday when I go to school and swipe my thumb on my desk, it turns black, courtesy the coal dust! If this is the amount of coal dust that settles on our desks, I cannot fathom the amount that each child has inhaled over the last several years,” he said.
He further said that due to high coal pollution, he too has developed breathing problems and many of his friends have also gone through the same traumatic experience. “The rich and well to do move out of Vasco to breathe a cleaner air but what about the thousands of people, particularly children who cannot afford another home and who continue to suffer day in and day out,” Correia asked.
“Time and again in the course of these hearings, the representatives of the GSPCB admitted that the pollution levels in Vasco were above the prescribed standards and we are sitting here to discuss while coal handling at MPT ought to be increased threefold, this is miserable. We have all been students at some point of time in our lives. A student who does not achieve the standards and requirements of a lower class and who does not pass the tests or exams is not promoted to the next class. I feel that the same principle should be applied to the coal handlers too. When they (MPT) have failed to achieve the environmental standards how can they be permitted to handle three times the present volume? Won’t it be like giving a double promotion to a student who has failed in all subjects,” he asked.
Commenting further, he said that “On behalf of every child and youth in Vasco, I plead with the MPT to leave us alone. What have we done to deserve this? You are hampering our future; you are hampering our right to clean air and clean environment. Can the previous generation assure my generation that they will pass on the same “Sobit Goem and Sundor Goem” inherited from parents? I know it is a difficult question to answer but, in spite of your best intentions, would it be possible with Goa turning into a coal hub or coal corridor?” he said.
“Will my children be able to enjoy the corals, the dolphins and the other invaluable marine life in Goa’s waters? If not, then why we are debating on this issue of whether to give permissions to MPT or not. I conclude by appealing to the concerned authorities both at the Central and State levels to give due consideration to the principles of intergenerational equity and sustainable development, as well as the right of every child to a clean healthy environment when considering the proposals to expand coal handling at Mormugão Port Goa” he concluded.
