the goan I network
MARGAO
Water entered into a couple of houses at Verna, while the Rumder road at Nuvem was submerged under waters since early Friday, forcing the authorities to deploy men and machinery to open sluice gates.
Salcete Mamlatdar Prataprao Gaonkar informed that a couple of families from Ambular-Verna were evacuated from the houses and provided shelter at the Verna panchayat hall. The evacuation operation was ordered after rising rain water entered the houses, posing danger to the inmates and the structures. Water level in the Rumder lake and the Ambular lake rose dangerously past midnight following heavy rainfall coupled with the fact that all the sluice gates were closed by the farmers to store water for the purpose of irrigation in the ensuing season.
By morning, water was overflowing over the Rumder-Nuvem road, while the waters entered the houses at Ambular as the movement of water was hampered given that the sluice gates remained shut.
Nuvem MLA Wilfred D’Sa called the Salcete Mamlatdar Prataprao Goankar as the situation threatened to inundate the houses. A total of three JCB machines were roped in to remove the sluice gates, first at Rumder lake to facilitate movement of the rain water. The team later headed to the Ambular lake to carry out a similar operation and the entire exercise was concluded by 3 pm.
The Nuvem MLA informed that the sluice gates were shut only recently to facilitate storage of the water to irrigate the fields in the ensuing season. “The farmers normally close the sluice gates around September, but this time, the gates were close only recently. No one had anticipated the rains to extend by this time of the year,” he added.
The Salcete Mamlatdar informed that the team evacuated the families as a precautionary measures till the time water was drained from the Ambular lake.Low-lying areas inundated
near Cutbona jetty
MARGAO: Flood water inundated the low-lying areas near the Cutbona fishing jetty in the wee hours of Friday.
Sources said the rising waters from the River Sal found its way inhabiting the low-lying areas near the fishing jetty, with the water entering a couple of houses. A local resident Cypriano Cardozo informed that water indeed entered into a couple of houses in the morning before receding around noon. He further said the River Sal flowed in full spate on Friday morning, with the waters rising to the level of the Cutbona jetty. Most of the fishing vessels had dropped anchor at the Cutbona fishing jetty after heeding to the warnings that cyclonic winds and heavy rainfall will hit the coast.
