‘No water in masjid tank, perform ritual at home’

PANAJI: The lack of water supply to Tiswadi since Thursday has forced the management at the Majid-ul-Aqsa at Merces to request devotes who come for prayer to perform ablutions at home. Devotees were told to do their ritual before arriving at the mosque during an announcement made by the maulana on Saturday after the afternoon prayers.
“The water in the masjid’s tank started to diminish on Saturday and the PWD authorities said that the water supply wouldn’t resume until the coming week. Owing to which, we had to make the announcement,” Maulana Azmatullah Noori said.
In Islam, Muslims are mandated to cleanse themselves or perform uzoo with clean water before offering prayers, thus making water availability in mosques a necessity.
At this mosque located along the Merces bypass, most prayer-goers are from Merces and St Cruz, besides the those who make a pit-stop while going to Panaji.
“Since our masjid is just off the highway NH-66, many travellers stop by to offer prayers. The lack of water is a problem for them. They’re forced to purchase bottled mineral drinking water from the shops nearby and perform ablutions using them,” he said.
Being a village mosque, the management lacks funds to buy water from private tankers.
“We are trying to arrange for water through tankers. Hopefully it should last until the regular supply resumes,” the maulana said.
The small mosque sees has around 35-40 devotees on an average day wherein people offer prayers five times a day.
“We live in Merces so we’re able to perform our ablutions at home, minutes before the prayers at the mosque. Even then, it is a challenge in case it starts to rain and there is a splash of muddy water from the puddles.” a devotee said.
In Panaji’s oldest mosque, the Jama Masjid, the management relied on well-water to provide for the prayer-goers’ ablutions. “We have a well so we haven’t faced any problem, yet,” a masjid member said.