Water sports or killer activity?
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, DEC 18
The death of a tourist on Saturday at Calangute in a water mishap off the beach brought back vivid memories of a similar kind of incident in the first week of January 2006, also involving a tourist, who unlike the former survived but not without suffering 22 stitches to his head after a ski-boat ran over him while he was swimming.
Ever since water sports has been introduced in Goa accidents too have become a regular feature when the tourism season is at its peak or just attaining peak. Looking at the accidents since 2006 it appears the authorities have managed to do little or nothing to control the speeding boats from encroaching into areas meant for swimmers.
Saturday afternoon’s unfortunate mishap may have been avoided if the authorities concerned had paid heed to two recent mishaps in November on a single day this year at Baga where a 43-year-old Finnish national was hurt after being hit by a dolphin trip boat while swimming and a parasailor injured.
Says General Secretary of the Shack Owners Welfare Society, John Lobo, “After the Baga incidents on November 21, I wrote to the Director of Tourism with copies to Tourism Minister and Captain of Ports warning them of further such incidents.”
Lobo says the authorities have to regularise the business before more lives are lost and the beach attains a bad name for tourist deaths. There is an urgent need to push the water sports activity where it can be operated in a safer zone, he adds.
The replies by Captain of Ports James Braganza and Director of Tourism Swapnil Naik into the incident offer little hope of strict action against the erring water sports operators.
Naik says zones are clearly demarcated and there was a supervising authority. Guidelines were issued in 2006 and regularly revised, he adds.
However, the same has not been able to curtail the unfortunate mishaps, says Lobo, because these operators work on packages that bring in big money to the tune of lakhs of rupees per month.
CoP Braganza says as far as his department was concerned it looks after the fitness of the vessels operating in the waters and from time to time they carry out checks.
