Mining operations shut, 800 homes at Ambeudok wait for water

SANVORDEM: Barely five kilometres from Curchorem town, in Ambeudok ward of Sanvordem panchayat in South Goa, are around 800 homes, which do not have provision of piped water supply till date and rely solely on water tankers for all requirements.

Until March 2018, before a Supreme Court order stopped iron ore mining operations in the state, Ambeudok was supplied with enough and more water by mining companies through tankers. So much so, the residents never felt the need to push the PWD to provide a water supply network for the area.

But now with the mining operations shut, mining companies have now long stopped tanker water supply. It has not been easy since for the local panchayat and the households to keep the pressure up on the PWD to have the water supply continued for them. The residents now survive on a ration of three barrels of water supplied per household every alternate day.

With hopes that mining operations will resume fading and the dry summer months nearing, residents of Ambeudok worry about how long the PWD tankers will be able to meet the water requirements of almost 800 households.

“All these years, the residents did not feel the need for piped water as mining companies would provide water several times a day. Only drinking water was supplied by the PWD tankers. After mining shut, the mining companies stopped water supply. And now PWD tankers have to supply water for all the requirements and not just for drinking. It has been kept on after several requests were made to the government through our MLA Deepak Pauskar. But I don’t know for how long we can keep this going,” said Sanvordem panchayat sarpanch Sandeep Prabhu Pauskar.

Residents of Ambeudok say that water pipelines were laid in the area many years ago, but the PWD did not construct a water storage tank, as the residents were not in need of piped water supply until now.

“Since mining stopped, we are only hearing promises that a tank will be constructed. Besides, the pipeline was laid almost 7 years ago and now its diameter is too small to cater to the requirements of all the households. We have become a joke now. The young girls who marry into homes in this village laugh at us. They can’t believe that we do not have piped water in this day and age,” said Prakash Gaonkar.

His wife Prajyoti Gaonkar said that initially PWD tankers would allow the households to collect some additional water in utensils, as drinking water, besides their quota of three barrels, but that too was discontinued recently.

“They said if they gave us additional water, the tanker does not suffice for supply till the far ends of the ward. In the summer, this water will be far from enough in the heat and if there are children in the house we require more water. Every now and then the women have to go and protest at the panchayat office to pressurise them to keep the supply going. It is a tough life here for the women. There is no happiness here for us,” said Prajyoti.

Sunita Mane said the women have to walk more than a kilometre to the stream nearby to do the laundry so the PWD water supply suffices for other requirements. “With mining operations on in the area over the years, the wells have also dried up,” she said.