This govt has allowed water meant for farmers to quench Mopa and Golf course projects
By *Sujay Gupta* | 07 Dec, 2014, Last week, Herald reported on two supposedly unrelated developments that will jointly spell a further death knell to Goa's ground water and related environmental interests. More than the fallout of the two developments is the manner in which the Goa government has taken two commercial decisions, bypassing rudimentary concerns about Goa's ground water, reckless deviation of water meant for irrigation and the absolute disregard for its own decision of declaring the entire state as a scheduled area to regulate utilization of water resources. The declaration made under sub-section (1) of Section 4 of the Goa Groundwater Regulation Act, 2002 (Goa Act 1 of 2002) came into force from April 2012. Earlier this week the so called Environment Impact Assessment of the Mopa Airport project done by Engineers India Ltd was made available to Herald. It has surprisingly not found its way to the MOEF website or in any other platform. Among the shocking anomalies and observations in that report, is the fact that the entire quantum of water needs for the Mopa project will be met by taping the waters of the Tillari irrigation project. It was in the same week, that Herald commenced its investigations into the Tiracol golf course and luxury resort villas project and was shocked to find that the total water requirement for the golf course across 5.62 lakh square meters and 128 resort villas and 60 premium villas will be 2550 cubic meters per day. This figure is in the official document to the project proponent Leading Hotels Limited granting prior Environment Clearance by the Goa State Environment Impact Assessment Authority. To put this is context, let us look at the quantum of water needed by a water dependent company like MRF which manufactures tyres in Goa. MRF's daily water requirement according to an environmentalist whose company worked on the EIA report for MRF is 1200 cubic meters which it draws from the Opa water source. MRF was made to pay for a mini dam at Opa in lieu of the water it draws. So the golf course and the villas will draw double the amount of water, the MRF plant draws on a single day. There are fundamental issues regarding this rampant and reckless tapping of Tillari waters. The Environment Protection Act of 1981makes it mandatory for a cess to be imposed for each type of water usage. The Goa Ground Water Regulation Act makes it imperative to schedule the usage of ground water as well as surface water. All usage needs prior clearances from the Department of Water Resources, especially if there is a use of bore wells. None of this has happened either for the Mopa airport project or the golf course and villa project. These decisions were taken due to the over exploitation of groundwater in many parts of Goa and the absence of database to initiate action against exploiters, which could include private (Tiracol Golf course) or PPP projects like Mopa. While the identification of open wells is comparatively easy, taking a count of bore wells is considered difficult as these can be hidden anywhere under a box, according to executive engineers of the Water Resources Department, to a newspaper two years ago. With regard to the tapping of Tillari waters, the government as well as private project developers seem to have found the Tillari dam waters, meant for irrigation purposes only, as their own private river. The Goa Tillari Irrigation Development Corporation has no idea of the scheduling of Tillari waters for the Mopa project. The Tillari irrigation project will cost Rs 1612.15 crores. 5300 hectares of land have been brought under irrigation. 9200 hectares of land need to be brought under irrigation in the next two years. Has the government willingly decided to allow diversion of waters meant for irrigation for mega private and semi private projects? This is all the more significant since both the Mopa and the golf course projects are in the same Pernem taluka. The Right Bank Main Canal (RBMC) of the Tillari dam extends from Tillari to Pernem. If the command area of the Tillari project comes under the areas covered by either project, diverting these waters is a definitely barred. For long, proponents of development have assumed environmental surrender at the altar of progress without ever asking for whose progress? The backers of the Mopa project will not ever look at environment impact but it is the government’s mandate to do this. In countless projects, the Pollution Control Board and the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the State Environment Department have batted on the side of project developers suppressing serious issues. For instance for the Golf Course project, serious issues like use and effect of pesticides and construction within 200 meters of the High Tide line were left unanswered and prior Environment Clearance given. For the Mopa project, the EIA does not address the impact of the sheer extent of construction, on the flora and fauna of the eco sensitive Mopa area with 385 plant species. The shoddy EIA calls the area non eco-sensitive clearly to enable the project to be given a clearance. The damage to ground water and compensatory afforestation were not even touched or detailed in the EIA summary, which itself is alarming and shows that callousness in which Environment Impact Assessments are prepared and environmental clearances given. This is going to be a long fight. The government which is supposed to be a referee is actually a player sold to private players. The battle to protect Goa's environment unfortunately will have to be people's struggle because what comes with development are land prices, real estate and business interests. In this universe EIAs and ECs are moulded to ensure that environment does not come in the way of the development of investors and those who help them.
