Margao: While thousands of litres of untreated sewage continue to be discharged in River Sal, the PWD has claimed poor response to sewerage connection with many housing complexes objecting to taking connections.

The sewerage network for Margao has been set up by three agencies under various schemes but continues to operate below capacity as the total connections is yet to touch 50 percent.

This is despite the PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar saying that all households having water connection would compulsorily be given sewerage connection while setting a May 2020 deadline for issuing connections.

The official said despite all efforts the response has been lukewarm while also having to face protests which have delayed release of several connections. He said the department faces criticism for discharge of raw sewage into river Sal but without public participation there is no solution to the problem.

The official said that the work of relaying of the sewage line from Fatorda is in progress and is expected to be completed by the month end before the monsoons.

Replying to a question of the department digging a freshly resurfaced road along Margao-Navelim he said the approvals were granted before the resurfacing however there were protests from the locals.

He said at present there are over 40,000 household connections however the total sewerage connections have not even touched the 50 per cent mark and anyone who has PWD water supply will have to compulsorily take the connections.

He said that one has to think of the impact on ground water if the sewage is continued to be discharged into the ground 20 years from now.

On the issue of release of treated water, he said it has been decided to release the water into River Sal so as to maintain the flow of water and hoped they received support from the village panchayats.