Unattended tar balls cause resentment among Colva locals

MARGAO, SEPT 3  
Five days after the oily substance invaded Salcete’s coastline, mounds of tar balls continue to adorn the Colva-Betalbatim stretch of the beach till date.
While tar balls have almost disappeared from the entrance to the Colva beach, the situation is not rosy if one goes further down from Gaundalim towards Betalbatim.
Tar balls collected on the beach during the beach clean up operation continues unattended till date, raising fears that the oily substance may go back to the sea during the high tide.
Social activist and convenor of Colva Civic and Consumer Forum, Judith Almeida bitterly protested against the attitude of government agencies in attending to the menace. “Despite assurances from the Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira, we have not seen any worker on the Colva stretch of the beach during the last two days. Heaps of tar balls lay on the beach without being lifted away for its scientific disposal”, Almeida lamented.
What has caused resentment amongst the locals is that the heaps of tar balls are left unattended on the beach. Locals say that the operation clean up may go waste if the tar balls return back to the sea during high tide.
Meanwhile, officials of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) returned to Colva Beach once again on Friday. Apart from collecting samples of the oily substance, the NIO officials also measured the size of the tar balls and conducted further investigations on the beach.