Team Herald
MAPUSA: Due to water supply scarcity to the residents of Mapusa and few parts of Bardez, a delegation of residents from Mapusa, has decided to march to the PWD office on Thursday, at 10.30 am, seeking a reason for the shortage of water since Dussehra festival.
Mapusa Municipal Council Councillor Tushar Tople has requested all the ‘Mhapxekars’ to be present in large numbers.
“From Monday we are not getting a drop of water. We were assured that the water supply would be restored on Wednesday but till now we don’t have water. The people of Khorlim have been facing water shortage and irregular water supply since Dussehra.”
“A delegation will be marching to the office of the PWD on Thursday morning to bring to their notice that we are suffering due to water shortage especially in Khorlim and the surrounding areas and demand for an answer on the same,” said Tople.
A PWD engineer on condition of anonymity told Herald that the water issue will be sorted out by Thursday.
“The Assonora Water Treatment Plant was currently being supplied water from the Amthane Dam. Suddenly they stopped the water supply because the level of the dam water was dropping. After the department requested them, they are providing the Assonora plant with 40 MLD water but the actual requirement is 120 MLD. The balance we are trying to manage from Tillari Dam and the Assonora River. Since there is a filtration problem at the Assonora plant parts of Porvorim and Mapusa are suffering,” he mentioned.
“For the last three days this has been the issue. The entire Porvorim Plateau is suffering. However, the low lying areas have received water. We are now working on an alternate arrangement to bridge the gap between the requirement and the water being supplied from Amthane Dam. Things have nearly stabilised and by Thursday water supply will return to normalcy,” added the PWD official.
A social activist from Mapusa, Shekhar Naik said that water is an essential commodity and they were being denied of it.
“The concerned officials have taken matters casually and not made arrangements for alternate water supply and neither informed the locals that there is a shortage of water. Besides, drinking water one needs water for toilets, washing clothes and cooking. We have not been receiving water since Monday and were assured that by Wednesday night it would be restored to normalcy,” said Naik.
While a resident of Aradi-Porvorim Martin Rodrigues said that they did not have water supply since Monday.
“Since we have an overhead tank we did not face that much of a problem. Water supply was restored on Wednesday in the afternoon. There was however no communication from the PWD Department about the stoppage of water supplies. They should have at least informed us so that we could make necessary arrangements. No water supply creates a lot of inconvenience as we have to go to the neighbour’s well to fetch drinking water,” said Rodrigues.
