Thursday 28 Mar 2024

Western bypass: Death knell for water channels?

Water canal network was laid through Navelim, Telaulim to bring agriculture land under cultivation

GUILHERME ALMEIDA | MARCH 26, 2017, 05:51 AM IST
 
MARGAO  
The avowed objective behind laying the vast network of irrigation water canal through the twin villages of Navelim and Telaulim around two decades ago was to bring under cultivation vast tracts of agricultural land.  
Indeed, the elaborate network of water canal, running through the low-lying fields of these twin villages were laid in the 90’s at the tax payers cost, on the premise that water from the Selaulim irrigation project would help farmers go in for a second crop. Sadly, as it turned out now, leave alone the irrigation water reaching the fields through the water channels, the western bypass project seems to have sounded a death knell for the water channels to make way for the bypass road.  
In fact, a ride down the proposed western bypass alignment along the River Sal-Salpem lake stretch in Navelim village would reveal that water channels of the main irrigation canal standing in the low-lying fields, have been dismantled to make way for the western bypass.  
And, if activist and Aam Aadmi Party leader Sidharth Karapurkar is to be believed, the PWD, National Highways, have destroyed water channels in Telaulim village, just to make way for the western bypass passing through the fields.  
Karapurkar pointed out that his inquiries with the local farmers have revealed that though these water channels were built with much fanfare, irrigation water was never released by the authorities. And, Karapurkar raised doubts whether the PWD, NH had obtained permission from the Water Resources Department and the Agriculture department. “I doubt whether the PWD had taken the permission to remove the water channels from the fields. At the last meeting we had with then Minister, Avertano Furtado and the authorities, our request to produce documents stating about the permissions taken by the PWD to remove the water channels went abegging,” he added.  
Indeed, farmers informed that the western bypass stretch in Navelim and Telaulim is passing through low-lying fields coming under the irrigation command area and running parallel to the water channels.   
Telaulim Sarpanch Mauricio Carneiro, who also cultivates fields along the bypass road, claimed that the Water Resources Department had never released water through the canal. “The panchayat body had in the past written several letters to the WRD to release the water so that the canals laid with public money are put to use, but in vain,” Carneiro said.  He pointed out that the canal network has been damaged in the village to make way for the western bypass, adding that large tracts of fields now play host to the embankment for the proposed bypass.   
Says Goans for Dabolim Only convenor Fr Eremito Rebello: “We agree that an elaborate road network is a need to cater to the growing traffic requirements. But, we have doubts about the objective behind the western bypass. Do we require a 60-meter-wide road to overcome the traffic problems at the cost of the low-lying fields or is the western bypass pushed through the once-green lush fields just to build an expressway, connecting Canacona to Pernem ahead of the commissioning of the Mopa airport.”  
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