The ground water level in coastal areas is very high. One will find water if
one digs a few meters down in the sandy soil. Septic tanks work on the
principle of soak pits to digest the effluents considering that the septic
tank is full to the brim when commissioned and the entry of a drop of water
will exit the septic tank into the soak pit. Soak pits are designed for
septic tanks of a household (one or two families). More than that no soak
pit can digest the output over a period of time and the effluents must leach
out invariably into fresh water wells withing the range of less than 10
meters.
Action of tides in the coastal belt will see that the soak pits are
inundated during the high tide and drained during the low tide. This
continuous action will spread the soak pit effluents including the bacteria
such as e-coli further down or upwards.
In the coastal belt in Goa, there is no sewerage system and entire housing
and commercial establishments are based on septic tanks and soak pits.
Therefore the entire coastal belt ground water is rendered un-usable as it
is polluted beyond redemption.
This is why the Japanese government gave Goa the GICA scheme worth of 2000
(two thousand crores) free of cost to install sewerage system for Margao,
North Goa Coastal belt and Mapusa city.
Mapusa Nagrikancho ekvott has managed to convince the PWD Minister
(Churchill Alemao) that the sewerage system for Mapusa city is a must
because the entire sewage enters the Mapusa river and has polluted it
completely and that he has to utilise GICA at all costs.
Good news is that the Mapusa sewerage system has now got a consultant and
should start shortly. So informs the concerned PWD Engineer in charge Mr.
Chimulkar.
Cheers to the Japanese and woe to us Indians.
Cheers
floriano
goasuraj
9890470896
www.goasu-raj.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bosco D" <[email protected]>
To: "Goanet" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 5:58 AM
Subject: Re: [Goanet] Septic tanks on the coastline...
-----Original Message-----
From: Frederick Noronha
Was just wondering about this: could anyone tell me why septic tanks
are considered risky along the Goan coastline?
RESPONSE: Perhaps the threat of E-coli [1] in water and sand.
Probably gets worse in warmer temps.
- B
[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli
