‘Choked’ nullah poses health hazard in Calangute’s Gaurawaddo area

JOSEPH PINTO | NT

Calangute 

Stagnation of sewage in the nullah is posing a health hazard to the residents in Gaurawaddo East, Calangute even as the COVID pandemic is not yet over in the beach belt.

The locals have brought to the notice of this daily that after they informed the local MLA to clean all the nullahs in Calangute, the WRD took up the work of cleaning the nullahs. 

However, it was found that most of the nullahs were choked due to encroachments – construction of septic tanks and soak pits. There was no free flow of water.

Locals said that the Gaurawaddo East nullah starts from the Calangute panchayat office and ends in Candolim. The communidade stormwater drain has remained unattended to for the last three years, resulting in the accumulation of water, and sewage that is being released by hotels and locals who have constructed dwellings for migrants along the nullah.

It is learnt that some locals have constructed soak pits and septic tanks in the nullah itself, and so the  stagnation of water is posing a health hazard.

Locals also brought to the notice of this daily that “some sewage tankers  release sewage into the nullah during the wee hours when there is a heavy downpour. The sewage sediments settle down in the nullah after the rains as there is no free flow of water as  the nullah is choked.”

A senior citizen and a resident of Gaurawaddo east Antonio D’Souza said that “in the year 1998, he had filed a petition in the High Court in public interest on health hazard due to the clogging of drains as the then panchayat body informed him that it did not have the required funds.  In 1999, the High Court instructed the village panchayat to clean the nullahs in Calangute.”

“The then panchayat body cleaned all the drains using earthmoving machinery and removed all the soak pits, septic tanks and encroachments in the nullahs and submitted a compliance report to the High Court.  After that till date the nullahs were not cleaned and people started encroaching the nullahs and constructing soak pits and septic tanks.  Hotels are releasing sewage water into the nullahs. As there is no free flow of water, it poses a health hazard to the residents of Gaurawaddo,” he said.

“The local MLA instructed the WRD to clean all the nullahs in Calangute, which was  done except in  Gaurawaddo east. The nullah is not cleaned for the last three years. It is the duty of the panchayat to clean the nullahs every year before the monsoon,” he said.

Another resident of Gaurawaddo East J Fernandes said, “I had to through an ordeal when my eight-year-old daughter suffered from dengue.   Health centre diagnosed her and declared her as a COVID patient. When we took another opinion at a private hospital she was diagnosed with  dengue. Look at the garbage,  tree branches  dumped in the nullah, we are inviting dengue in this area,” she said.

When  sarpanch of Calangute Shawn Martins was contacted on the issue of  Gaurawaddo East nullah, he said that the village panchayat asked the WRD to clean all the nullahs in Calangute. Martins said that the panchayat was under the impression that the work has been done, and no resident brought it to his notice. 

When Martins called the deputy sarpanch Pooja Matkar, who is the ward member, she said that only part of the nullah has been cleaned.

Martins has given assurance that the nullah will be cleaned at the earliest after photos were shown to him, as dengue is fast spreading it tentacles in Calangute.

The village panchayat has taken up fogging in Calangute, he said.

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