Goa faces wrath of rain as houses go under, collapse in Bicholim

BICHOLIM: As the heavy downpour continued for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, many low-lying areas in Bicholim taluka were submerged in knee-deep water, forcing residents to move their household belongings to higher grounds.
Two mud houses collapsed in the taluka resulting in a loss of altogether Rs 2.5 lakh to the house owners, Bicholim mamlatdar Laxmikant Kuttikar said.
Vasanti Chodankar from Marmawada, Narve, one of the affected, saw the entire roof of her house come crashing down. The incident has left the family homeless.

In the second incident, the wall of Leela Velgekar’s house in Gaonwada, Velguem, collapsed, making the structure unliveable.
The affected members of both families will be shifted to safer places, officials said.
Other than the low-lying villages of Gauthan, Kudne and Nanora, parts of Bicholim town like Gaonkarwada and Bandarwada, also saw homes being flooded.
Water was seen filling up in abandoned mining pits and WRD officials began work of pumping out the excess water.
Officials said that water levels are also rising fast in the Tillari reservoir in the Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra. The Tillari, on which the dam stands, is known as the Chapora once it enters Goa. Once the dam is seen filling up, excess water is released into the river, which leads to water levels in the Chapora rising. At present, the Tillari reservoir is 62% full.
Bicholim mamlatdar Laxmikant Kuttikar along with WRD officials Naresh Pokle, Siddharth Shirodkar and Talathi Sahadev Mote visited Sal village and inspected the water levels in the Chapora. The pumping station was also inspected. In 2019, Sal was among the villages in Goa flooded after water was released from the Tillari and the Chapora breached its banks.
“We are monitoring the situation 24 hours a day and at present there is no risk of flooding,” Kuttikar said.
Meanwhile, water levels continue to rise in the Valvanti and the Nanora, which, like the Chapora, wind through Bicholim taluka.
Residents of Lamgaon, Shirgaon, Poira, Sanquelim, Sirsaim, Velguem, Pale, Kudne and Pissurlem have expressed fear that the huge mining dumps in these areas may collapse due to the heavy rainfall, which could lead to the sludge entering nearby houses.
Fire brigade personnel were also kept busy throughout the day by minor landslides in many parts of Bicholim .