When a beer factory destroys farmers’ spirits and there’s no water to ‘lift’

Karsten Miranda

karsten@herald-goa.com

AMDAI (SANGUEM): The parched fields of Uguem could well be a slice of drought impacted Maharashtra. Bone dry fields, canals without water and pipelines meant to transport river water through a lift irrigation scheme, hollow as ancient caves. But the tap, figuratively, has not been turned off due to drought but the new man made enemy – the beer factory which has been cleared on pristine orchard land, which will guzzle 5.06 lakh litres of water from the Uguem River daily. Yes that’s right. Vani Agro Farms, the company which is going to make beer, said it needs 6 litres of water for make 1 litre of beer, when it applied to the Water Resources Department for an NOC for “lifting of raw water” from River Uguem at Amdai Quinamol. 

There are around 500 tribal people living in Amdai ward of Sanguem right near the property of Vani Agro Beer factory and they have been suffering from acute water shortage for the last two months.

The tribal people are farmers by occupation and grow coconut, arecanut, kokum, paddy and other spices. These fields are the livelihood of the community.

To enter Amdai from Sanguem town, one has to cross a narrow bridge at Nandulem that is so small that only one vehicle can pass at a time. This narrow dilapidated bridge is attached to the lift irrigation network pipelines that were created to supply water to their fields. But there’s no water to supply.

Lift irrigation is a method of irrigation – in which water is not transported by natural flow (as in gravity-fed canal systems) but is lifted with pumps or other means.

“For the last one month, they have not supplied water for irrigation for our coconut farms and the reason we are told is that there is lack of water in the Uguem River,” lamented Umesh Gaonkar, a leading figure who is rallying farmers and educating them on the impact of beer factory at Uguem, which will compete and win the race for getting more water from the river.  

Gaonkar and the other villagers then show the dried up canals that are devoid of water at a time when the village farms were dependent on water being supplied to their farms through these canals.

The villagers squarely blame the Vani Agro factory and refer to documents where the Water Resources Department on November 26, 2013 had given an NOC to the Vani Agro Farms for the installation of a 10 HP electric pump set on River Ugem at Amdai. “The permission states that the plant is for irrigation brewery and distillery plant along with water treatment plant for drawing of 506 m3 of water for industrial purpose,” read the letter from WRD to Vani Agro. Herald has reported this on its front page on May 5 entitled, “After land, even our water has been surrendered to Vani Agro’s beer plant.

What has irked the villagers is that Water Resources Department has not bothered to refer to another clause that states that ‘permission maybe revoked without giving prior notice if there is shortage of water to the ‘Quinnamol Lift Irrigation Scheme’. “Do they want us to stop growing our fields by systematically cutting off our water supply? We are the beneficiaries of the Quinnamol Lift Irrigation Scheme and we have written to all government departments. This summer it has been unbearably hot and we go to our fields every day to work but with no water we are severely handicapped,” Umesh Gaonkar said.

The villagers had earlier pointed out that the natural pathways for water to their fields had also been blocked by the factory and had questioned if this was allowed.

Furthermore, they have claimed that 191,040 cubic metres of water from river Uguem is being pumped for the proposed project for brewery and distillery despite the fact that no study had been done to verify the possible impact either on the river or the availability of water in the bandhara at Amdai for irrigation, after pumping by the beer factory.

Amidst their struggle with the authorities to ensure that they get water supply, the villagers have been dealing with another issue where their water bodies and fields will get contaminated.

In this regard, they have expressed disappointment with the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) that gave a clean chit to the factory.

For now, the battle has just begun. A long, hard and most shockingly a dry parched battle.