NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Some digging/land-filling activities ongoing behind the Miramar beach, at few places from Caranzalem garden onwards could aggravate the problem of waterlogging as witnessed during the monsoons, on the newly concretised Miramar-Dona Paula road.
The particular places located behind the huts and small houses of the local fisherfolk and situated along the beach are being dug up/filled by unknown persons. The area falls under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), specifically under CRZ-3 and CRZ-4. Certain activities related to agriculture and some public facilities are allowed in Coastal Regulation Zone-3, while Coastal Regulation Zone-4 lies in the aquatic area up to territorial limits, with fishing and allied activities permitted in this zone.
An official at the Coastal Zone Management Authority told this daily that no permission has been given by the CZMA for such activities along the Miramar beach. “We are unaware if such activities are in progress on or near the beach,” the CZMA official stated.
The Miramar beach extends about 4.5 kilometres southwards up to Caranzalem, and terminates against the wooded hill slopes of Cabo promontory.
Srinet Kothawale, the managing director of the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC), stated that the concretisation of the Miramar-Dona Paula road has been completed by the GSIDC, as also the laying of the sewage pipeline under this road. “And then we have already handed this road over to the Corporation of the City of Panaji, as the Corporation wanted to hold a Carnival parade along this road,” he maintained, informing that any ongoing developmental activity in the area is not related to the GSIDC.
When asked about these ongoing digging/land-filling activities, city Mayor Surendra Furtado expressed unawareness about the same. “I have no idea about it,” he noted.
According to ‘Castles on the Sands,’ a report of the one-man committee appointed by the government on Miramar Beach Management Project as prepared and submitted by one-man committee member Dr Nandkumar Kamat in February 2002, the seashore from Miramar circle to Dona Paula is not actually a road but an embankment, which impounds the rainwater on landward side.
The report further states, “A revolutionary change is required in improving the drainage and sanitation in the hinterland area, which drains across the new seashore road and along the Miramar beach. Permitting millions of litres of water, which carries man-made pollutants and pathogens during the rains to soak in the sandy strata from the Sulabh toilet complex at Miramar to Martins’ Beach Corner is an invitation to ecological and public health disaster.”
“But that is precisely what has been happening and is being allowed to happen by the authorities who have forgotten the standard practices of storm water and environmental engineering. The one-man commission has only made a very preliminary but pertinent diagnosis, but it is left to the government to administer the treatment,” it adds.
A number of constructions have come up in the area since this report was submitted to the government, exactly 16 years ago, in turn worsening the situation. The ongoing digging/land-filling activities could further aggravate the scenario, with the Miramar-Dona Paula road forced to be submerged during the monsoon, even after light drizzles.