Selaulim saga: Dammed fates, pipe dreams- I

Selaulim saga: Dammed fates, pipe dreams September 1, 2012 SHWETA KAMAT shweta@herald-goa.com SANGUEM: The villagers who surrendered their rights and shifted out of their ancestral village to quench the thirst of 80 per cent of Goa today struggle to get a few buckets of potable water for themselves. The supreme irony of the situation is that after their so-called “rehabilitation”, they stay barely 500 meters from the vast pool of dammed water. Thirst and the search for ways to quench it looms large over the daily lives of residents of three colonies and a Waddo - Vaddem colony number one, two and three and old waddos whose only source of potable water is a solitary borewell. There was a second such well, but it failed, and so the bore well that was to cater to only one colony now has to serve for four settlements. Uninterrupted water supply is a pipe dream for this dammed lot. “It takes eight hours to fill the overhead tank with water pumped from the bore well. But the entire tank gets empty within half an hour,” said Sadanand Gawde, a local, who is one amongst those who have tried to raise this issue with the government and policymakers in the capital city of Panjim, 120 kms away from Vaddem. “We surrendered our villages and relocated here. I was a school-going child then. We were given scores of assurances related to rehabilitation. One amongst them was abundant drinking water,” says Sadanand, who recalls how their earlier settlement, Pottyanwado, from where they were shifted here, never had a problem of drinking water. Currently, around 3,000 people are banking on the overhead tank, which dries up within minutes. “Some people who are allotted houses at colony number three have not yet shifted. They are still in their Kurpi village. They might move out from there and shift to the colony soon. If that happens than there would be more grievous water scarcity,” he explained. The rehabilitation process in these localities has been abandoned half way. Rajendra Gaonkar, another youth employed in a private firm at Nessai industrial estate, almost 50 kms away from his house, narrated how they have to rely on water tankers during dry months. “After January onwards, we get water through tankers,” said Rajendra, who has Selaulim water inundating areas just 400 metres away from his house. The tiny hamlets located around the Selaulim river were shifted during the damming process in 1980s. Chandrakant Gawde, a village elder, recollected why they gave their land to government because “they believed in the welfare of larger community.” “No one knew how much area would be inundated. When government offered us rehabilitation in the form of a plot and cultivable area, we agreed. We did not want to leave our ancestral village but we did it for the larger good,” Chandrakant , in his 70s, said. The options were given – either cultivable plot of 10,000 square metres or Rs 4 lakhs. Many people took the money while several continued with the cultivation. Chandrakant has cultivated an orchard from the plot which he was given in place of the land which he surrendered. Although Selaulim dam water is hardly a few metres away from his orchard farm, he has to struggle to get water. “I dug a well. But I did not get water in it,” he stated. Sanguem legislator Subhash Fal Desai said that the water issues are grave in three panchayats – Vaddem, Bhatim and Molcornem. Two of these panchayats have people who have been rehabilitated there due to construction of the dam. “They are all situated around dam water but no attempts are made to get them water,” said Desai, who had raised the issue on the floor of the house during recent assembly session. Back in Vaddem, Chandrakant’s elder son, who is a teacher by profession, wonders how the government has forgotten them, who have given up everything for a greater cause. He said the rehabilitation schemes are implemented half-heartedly here. Villagers point out to the dilapidated structure which was supposed to be a 35-bed hospital with two operation theatres. “The hospital never started. Recently, Health Minister Laxmikant Parsekar visited the place and assured to reset it,” a village youth stated. http://www.heraldgoa.in/News/Main%20Page%20News/Selaulim-saga-Dammed-fates-pipe-dreams/63904.html