Team Herald
PONDA: The Ponda MLA Ravi Naik has heavily criticised the Water Resources Department (WRD) for failing to desilt and clear the main nullah of the city, which is located near the Dhavlim-Farmagudi bypass road.
Local residents have also raised concerns about the condition of the nullah which is choked with garbage, raw sewage and has been unattended to for ages now. Sources pointed out that hundreds of residential and domestic residences release raw sewage and toilet waste into the nullah. The nullah has in turn become a site where grass, weed is seen along with various types of garbage material. Due to this, locals fear that there could be flooding in the monsoons as the waterways are blocked.
“If there is flooding, the WRD officials will be responsible for not having desilted the nullah before the monsoon season,” said Naik.
Sources at the Ponda municipality have blamed the delay on the code of conduct. Officials acknowledged that there is an urgent need to carry out pre-monsoon work at the nullah. Elderly folk in the city recall how the water used to be clean in the past and people would even go for a swim and take a bath here.
The nullah flows from Ponda to Kavlem to Bandora where hundreds of farmers used to depend on this water for its cultivation but after the pollution levels especially the presence of sewage water, the same has stopped. While the Ponda municipality has been blamed for failing to control this menace, locals are hoping the proposed sewerage treatment plant coming up at Kavlem along with desiling work will help the farmers get clean water for farming at Kavlem and Bandora.
