TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Dredging work at the mouth of River Sal at Betul has finally got underway, but boat owners say that only a breakwater facility or a retaining wall at the river mouth can ensure safe navigational channel for fishing vessels operating from Cutbona and Betul fishing jetties.
Heavy earth-moving machinery has been deployed at the river mouth as the work tendered by the Captain of Ports to dredge the mouth has commenced at the site. Incidentally, river Sal mouth was dredged twice in the past seven years, but mechanised boat owners and small fishermen operating from Betul say that the dredging had only given them temporary relief from the sand bar at
the mouth.
Says Cutbona Boat Owners Union President Seby Cardozo: “I believe the dredging work is being carried out by the State government. But what the boat owners have been asking over the years is a breakwater facility or a retaining wall to keep the navigational channel open round the year”.
Boat owners maintained that a break-water facility on the lines of Malpei will go a long way in ensuring a navigational channel free from any hostile conditions. “We do not know to what extent the ongoing dredging work will help the fishing vessels, but boat owners are of the strong opinion that only a breakwater facility or a retaining wall can offer a permanent solution to the navigation problem”, Seby stated.
The state fisheries department had in the past proposed backwater facility at the mouth of River Sal. However, the Goa government-appointed consultant from West Bengal had suggested construction of a retaining wall at the river mouth to take care of the silt formation. The proposal was mooted in the development of the Cutbona fishing jetty, but the project never saw light of the day after the government scrapped the land acquisition proceedings to acquire land admeasuring 30,000 sq mts at the Cutbona fishing jetty.
Incidentally, hopes have now been raised over the implementation of the backwater project following a visit to the national Capital by Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado, who has been assured by the centre to release grants for the project.
