Industrial pollution in Goa: A potential disaster
Goa's strength lies in its human resources, but successive governments have failed to come up with a plan to tap the talent. Instead, the Goan politicians have brought in polluting and energy sucking industries, like the Iron melting companies.
MIGRATION IS always a difficult task for the first generation migrants, says a Belgium based Goan, Francis Jawahar Borges. He is one of the many Goans who have migrated to different parts of the world in search of greener pastures. The question that immediately springs up is why successive governments in Goa have not been able to keep the large number of the youth, tied to the land. Goa’s strength lies in its human resources, but successive governments have failed to come up with a plan to tap the talent. Instead, the Goan politicians have brought in polluting and energy sucking industries, like the Iron ingots melting companies which dot several industrial estates here. There is no need to guess who pockets the money bags from the industry owners. They do not see the impact that they have on the ecosystem here. One needs to only visit Cuncolim industrial estate and its surrounding areas, one such industrial site and the destruction of the environment is obvious. Two years ago, the High Court of Mumbai - Goa bench had directed the Goa Pollution board to conduct a survey and find out the extend of pollution in Cuncolim. However, such a report never came and the true extent of damage to this shore region remains unknown. The activists in Cuncolim have constantly blown hot and cold over the pollution issue. However, many others convinently forget it, or raise it only at the time of elections, like the recent Goan assembly polls. The ground situation in Cuncolim is that many residents of the village staying in a radius of five kms have closed the wells that supply them water, in fear of the massive scale of water pollution. They may have safeguarded themselves from drinking and otherwise consuming such pollutants, but there is no check on the reach of the pollution itself. If it has found its way into the irrigation canals, then it may be inside the very foods consumed by them, becoming a potential disaster. It is time that activists from Goa and Cuncolim in particular, get their act together and push the pollution board against the wall, but for that they need to do their homework. Otherwise all their efforts might be too little, too late.
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