Lobo puts onus on govt to solve water shortage

Calangute: The North Goa coastal belt is facing an acute shortage of water and no attempt is being made to improve supply, Calangute BJP MLA Michael Lobo said on Wednesday.
He told reporters at Candolim that his constituents keep complaining to him about the lack of PWD water supply for days at a time. “More than 100 people came to see me on Tuesday in connection with this issue. Every time I ask the PWD engineer, he says there’s no water flowing through the pipeline. The WRD officials say they’re not getting raw water because there is a breach in the Tillari channel that will take 20 days to repair. This is a big problem and the government is duty-bound to find a solution,” Lobo said.
The MLA further said that despite there not being sufficient water for existing consumers, the construction boom — particularly of hotels — along the North Goa coastal belt continues unabated. He warned that the government would have to come out with a policy decision to prohibit the construction of more hotels if it cannot resolve the lack of water supply.
“They’re saying this is the coastal belt and hotels have to be set up. In the next one year, 10,000 hotel rooms will be opened, plus flats and other projects. Where is the water for all this? The government is responsible for water supply. We need to come out with a solution and plan how to procure water for the long term,” Lobo said.
Villages of Pilerne, Reis Magos and Nerul, being at the tail end, are facing water shortage these past few days.
The sarpanch and panch members are providing the people with tankers, said MLA Kedar Naik who led a delegation to the senior PWD engineers to tackle the water issue in his Saligao constituency. On Tuesday, he had called on WRD chief engineer P Badami.