MARGAO
The ghost of rainwater infiltration into Margao’s underground sewerage has come back to haunt the PWD and Sewerage & Infrastructural Development Corporation Of Goa Ltd (SIDCGL), besides Madgavkars.
What has been all along feared has come true – both the Sewerage Treatment Plants (STP) located at Sirvodem-Margao, the 6.75 MLD and the 20 MLD, are running to their full capacity, thanks to the heavy downpour and the susceptibility of the underground line to infiltration of rainwater.
Just days before the monsoon could set in, the 20 MLD plant was reportedly treating around 14 MLD of sewage daily, while the 6.75 MLD was running to its capacity.
With monsoons setting in with full gusto, PWD sources admit in private that both the STPs are now running to their capacities, bringing to the fore the ghost of infiltration and the extent of rainwater entering the plants via the underground sewage line.
A retired PWD official attributed the annual situation to the large-scale infiltration of rainwater into the underground line carrying sewage to the two STPs.
"This has happened in the past and now again and will also occur in the future unless the authorities conduct a test of the underground line to check the points where rainwater infiltrates,” the official said.
He added: “The PWD had in the past called for caution while taking possession of the underground line so that the contractors are made to rectify the line laying work faults. We only hope the government and the SIDCGL get the contractor to check the water infiltration points all along the line.”
Unimaginable situation
Officials in the know feared that the situation at the STPs may turn unmanageable once all the households and commercial establishments from the city and its outskirts are connected to the underground line.
“Just imagine a situation when the two STPs run to their normal capacities before rainwater infiltrates into the underground line during the monsoons. Either the rainwater mixed with sewage will gush out of the sewage chambers or the STPs will have a terrible time in the treatment of the incoming water,” remarked an official.
The official threw a pointed question at the government – whether the citizens will have to live with the overflowing sewage chambers during monsoons or whether the authorities will work out a solution to plug the water infiltration along the underground sewage line.
Sewage raises its stink at MMC building passage
MARGAO: Blame it on rainwater infiltration or simply a choked underground line, sewage has raised its stink right in the passage of the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) building.
Sewage odour pervades the municipal building housing the library, posing a nuisance as well as a health hazard to the citizens using the building passage. Cobblers eking a living on the MMC building passage have been complaining of a foul odour emanating from the adjoining sewage chamber over the last few days but in vain.
With the MMC under the scanner of citizens, as the sewage has raised its stink right in the building passage, Margao municipal officials have been quick to push the blame on the PWD, sewerage. “We have checked the municipal sewage chambers and they are all free from any blockages. Our inquiries have revealed that sewage water is oozing out from the municipal sewage chamber apparently because the main underground line is choked with waste,” remarked a civic official, pushing the blame on the PWD, Sewerage.
Sadly, though sewage odour has hit the MMC building since last week, neither the PWD nor any other authority has come to resolve the issue to date.
