All the agitations in Goa are for a good cause after all. In between all the din of the agitations one gets a dose of reality that can shake up your goanness completely and make you absolutely livid with people in the government who claim that citizens have gone a little too far with their agitation agenda.
For those who believe that megaprojects, garbage dumping and haphazard development is part of life, it is time to taste the drinking water in your area in Goa. Calangute's residents have already made the painful decision to stop drinking water from their wells some time ago due to the water rendering itself unfit for consumption. The reason? Large scale mushrooming of hotels and rampant housing projects which are almost bumper to bumper in central Calangute.
Water resources in the area as well as the coastal belt of Goa have been contaminated due to the discharge of sewage onto the ground with Calangute being the worst hit while the local population of the area is relying completely on public tap water.
This contamination of water was apparently confirmed by the World health organisation(WHO) who stated that the water in the wells of coastal villages in Goa was unfit for human consumption.
With cities in Goa already affected, the coastal villages in Goa are following suit and very soon the internal villages of Goa could be the next in line for the contaminated share, if the projects of housing and hotels are allowed so brazenly.
The rise in septic tanks in Calangute has been high in recent times owing to the large number of housing projects and currently the ground is reportedly unable to absorb any more sewage.
The sewage leaking from the septic tanks channels along water bodies or in the streams of nullahs while sometimes directly pumping onto the ground through ring wells thereby contaminating ground water resources.
While there is a great desire to have housing projects and hotels in all coastal areas by the government of Goa, there seems to be a toothless display as far as infrastructure such as sewage plants etc which are a necessity, is concerned.
The stand of all Goans at various gram sabhas opposing megaprojects, alignments, housing projects, regional plans etc., are therefore vindicated by this small finding. There are probably a million other skeletons in the closet enough to take Goa to its doom unless the government of Goa shows its genuine concern for the preservation of Goa's natural resources.
Down with haphazard concretisation of Goa!
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