VALPOI: Three years ago, the remote hamlet of Shelop Budruk, under the Nargargao panchayat in Sattari, made it to the news after a majority of its residents were struck by a diarrhoeal infection. The cause of the problem was open defecation due to lack of toilets and sourcing of drinking water from the local stream in the absence of treated water supply.
Nothing has changed since then for the residents of the around 60 shanties in Shelop Budruk. Residents said that for 10 years now they have been given constant assurances that these issues will be addressed. The state officially declared itself open defecation free around two years ago, but these villagers say that 20% of the households in the hamlet have no toilets and therefore residents defecate in the nearby stream.
Also, though Goa recently announced that it has provided tap connections to 100% rural households under the Jal Jeevan Mission, water supplied to Shelop Budruk is turbid and unfit for consumption, local panch Parag Khadilkar said.
For Shelop Budruk locals, stream serves as toilet as well as source of drinking water
He said that the panchayat has decided to take up work of replacing the old pipes with new UPVC pipes. “Work has already been sanctioned,” Khadilkar said.
“Presently, we can send two tankers regularly to the village, till there is a permanent solution to this problem. I will personally visit the village and check the condition of the borewell and the pipes supplying water there,” assistant engineer of Valpoi PWD (water supply division) Soma Naik said.
The sarpanch of Nargargao village panchayat Prashant Marathe told TOI that his panchayat has received 170 applications for new toilets, including 12 from Shelop Budruk village. “Their applications have already been sanctioned. We will resolve the problems of the people soon,” he said.
But the residents of Shelop Budruk said they have been waiting for assurances to be fulfilled for the last ten years now.
“We have been getting turbid water for the last ten years. We don’t consume the tap water as it can be harmful to our health. Water is supplied through tankers to us on alternate days and we prefer to use this water,” said villager Deshmita Gaonkar.
She said that they had collected the tap water and sent photographs to the junior engineer of the Valpoi water supply department last week, but have not received any response yet.
Another villager, S Fati Gawas said that they have made several complaints over the years to the PWD water supply division officials, but no steps have been initiated to address this problem.
“Tap water received at all 60 houses in the village is turbid. We have to keep the taps running for several hours to release the muddy water, and this leads to exorbitant bills,” Gawas said.
She said that in her household, untreated water from the local stream is used for consumption.
“As for toilets, the panchayat has never conducted any survey to check whether the villagers have toilets or not, but during elections they visit our village begging for votes,” Gawas said.
An elderly man from the village said that the toilets in the village were built about 20 years ago under a government scheme, but many lie in an unusable condition.
“Most residents of Shelop Budruk are not financially well off and only few have managed to get their toilets repaired. So many go into the nearby bushes or the village stream to answer nature’s call,” he said.
Villagers also claim that no new toilets were constructed from the government end after the problem of water contamination occurred three years ago.