How Tiswadi Would Face Massive Flooding

Except for stretches of highways and roads above sea level, most of the roads in the island of Tiswadi would be flooded

Nandkumar M Kamat

As their first land conquest in Asia in AD 1510 , the Portuguese keenly studied the tropical island of Tiswadi and took care of its drainage requirements. The best example is the causeway on 41 Roman arches called “Ponte de Linhares” built in AD 1633 which was tidally integrated with flow of water from the hinterland. After the Liberation of Goa the local governments and politicians have proved utterly useless and deficient in getting an integrated, holistic perspective of tropical island ecosystems. Tiswadi is slowly sinking. In the coming weeks unprecedented flooding would take place in Tiswadi leading to loss of lives and property, erosive damage to traffic and transportation infrastructure, contamination of drinking water supply and outbreaks of many dreaded waterborne and mosquito borne diseases.

Government and local elected representatives know that once the floods recede people would forget the hardships till the next monsoon and the cycle would be repeated next year. Cutting of the hills from Altinho to Bambolim and Curca-Santana-Neura-Old Goa releasing the top soil turning into sediment, levelling of the protective sand dunes, taking over the embankments for constructing hutments, heavy unchecked reclamation of khazan lands which lie below the sea level, choking of the ancient streams, rivulets, creeks and backwaters draining rainwater from higher grounds to the sea, destruction of  reservoirs storing excess rainwater at high tides, non-maintenance of  old box type culverts and cross drains below roads, replacement of natural, porous drainage systems with breakable, sinking RCC pipes, covering of well oxygenated original natural drains with impervious RCC slabs and a record increase in covered impervious area in the name of beautification projects are major causes of flooding in Tiswadi island.

Except for stretches of highways and roads above sea level, most of the roads in the island of Tiswadi would be flooded during this monsoon cutting off many villages from the capital city. After the Liberation the governments which ruled Goa from December 1963 forgot that the capital city of Panaji is located on one of the most ecologically fragile islands in Asia totally at the mercy of two rivers- Mandovi and Zuari, a linking Cumbarjua tidal canal and advancing waters of Arabian Sea. The regional plans and outline development plans did not take into account the special attributes of land utilization in this estuarine island. The drainage of this island is bifurcated into two river basins. The Mandovi drains mostly the northern half and the Zuari river drains the southern half -a vast area from Carambolim to Dona Paula. All old maps clearly show the drainage pattern existing in the island following the contours of the land and permitting smooth discharge of the rainwater from the higher grounds to the lower ground. Today this whole system has been destroyed and installation of expensive pumping stations would not solve the problem. When the Arab traders established a trading colony in the island in the 7th century they paid attention to build large protective seawalls. The Kadambas (AD 1050-1326) ruling from Govapuri  (modern Goa Velha-Pilar) strengthened these walls and this whole thousand year old massive anti erosive fortification system is visible from Bambolim to Dona Paula. The Portuguese further strengthened it. Millions of laterite stones were utilized in its construction. In Bambolim village from the valley behind the Goa Medical College to the beach large ancient drainage structures are visible. In short in both the river basins from plateaus, hills and higher ground to the waterfront care had been taken to defend against the erosive forces of the sea and ensure smooth non erosive discharge of rainwater.

After the Liberation of Goa in the name of development this ancient system maintained by the local comunidades was systematically fragmented and dismantled. The biggest assault was made on Panaji which would never escape monsoon flooding unless the three creeks-Chimbel, Santa Inez and Calapur-Ourem are ecologically restored from their point of origin in the Nagali hill to Merces hill corridor. This year there would be unprecedented flooding in Taleigao, Panaji, Merces and Santa Cruz.

Anyone can see how the thoughtless work on the highway from KTC bus stand Panaji to Bambolim has finished the old drainage system. This road would be submerged. Large scale illegal reclamation of low-lying land in Taleigao would see submergence of the scenic road connecting Taleigao market to Santa Cruz Church square. The old Panaji Santa Cruz road would remain under water from four pillars to Bondir football ground. Both Bondir and Ubo dando wards of Santa Cruz would experience flooding. Panaji would face a major brunt of flooding because the government has intentionally blocked the fire brigade to the indoor stadium channel of the Santa Inez creek to help local constructions escape CRZ regulations.

TCP, WRD. GCZMA, CCP, NGPDA and VP Taleigao turned a blind eye to the encroachment on setback areas of Santa Inez creek. Taleigao does not have any direct outfall for its huge volume of rainwater, so one would not be surprised if the roads around the Taleigao church see flooding. Most of the Taleigao farms storing rainwater from Nagali hill have been reclaimed. Taleigao could be Goa’s major dengue outbreak hotspot followed by Caranzalem, Dona Paula, Santa Cruz and Merces. The maintenance of the 700 CC water supply line from Opa to Tiswadi by PWD is very poor so people would fall sick once the dirty flood water teeming with enter opathogenic bacteria enter the drinking water supply after the flooding. Within next two months the health authorities would be overburdened with patients coming down with gastroenteritis, dysentery, hepatitis, paratyphoid, Cholera, Leptospirosis and mosquito borne diseases such as drug resistant Malaria, Chikungunya and four strains of Dengue. This would be the price to be paid in the name of development of Tiswadi island which has lost its capacitance against flooding. It has become a predictable annual  ritual for administration to blame the weather and heavy rains and get away with their constitutional micro planning responsibilities.

We have seen heavy rains and floods since our childhood in Tiswadi island but these were natural and receded in a few hours. The floods this year would be man made. No low-lying part of the island would escape from it. Having already crossed the hydrological and ecological tipping point the tropical estuarine island of Tiswadi is likely to be reclaimed by the advancing Arabian Sea in coming years because of the plain stupidity of some of its powerful inhabitants.