FirstpostIndiaBeer country Goa, battles over waterApr 6, 2013
By Mayabhushan NagvenkarPanaji: Draught beer may run riot here, but in this
tropical Eden called Goa, water is fast becoming a contentious commodity,
thanks to decades of rampant and indiscriminate open cast mining.Over a 100
open cast mines streaked with iron and manganese deposits, most of which have
already pierced through the state’s water table at nearly 60 mts, have not only
resulted in an increased content of manganese in the several rivers and lakes
which are located within the state’s mining belt, but has also triggered a
water shortage.Now Gauns has accused Parrikar of misguiding people by
positively linking mining activity to ground water recharge. AFPOnly while the
Chief MinisterManohar Parrikar is victim to a bizarre belief that the cause of
the water shortage is the ban on mining, his Public Works Department minister
Ramkrishna Dhavalikar does a cake-eating Marie Antoinette when asked why the
water in the state’s reservoirs was being increasingly laced with
manganese.“Having little manganese in drinking water is good,” he told the Goa
legislative assembly this week.And how little is little?According to tests
conducted by Dhavalikar’s own department this week, while the permissible level
of manganese in potable water is 0.7 mg per litre, levels of the mineral in the
Selaulim dam has reached 1.2 mg per litre. Located in South Goa and ringed by
several mining pits, the dam caters to over half of Goa’s 15 lakh million
population.Sources, however, said that that the levels of manganese also scaled
to 3 mg several times in the few months, before the mining ban came into force
in October, 2012. According to noted green activist Ramesh Gauns mining has
played havoc with the state’s water table.“This issue of sudden groundwater
depletion is a very vital and is being dealt with very casually and very
irresponsibly. This government is fooling the people of Goa. Mining has played
havoc with the ground water scenario here,” Gauns told Firstpost. Gauns is not
the only person who makes that charge.The Supreme Court’s central empowered
committee (CEC) was assigned to inspect Goa’s mining areas by the apex court,
which is hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) on the illegal mining
issue, filed by noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan. After inspecting several mining
sites and villages near by the mining belt, these are the findings they came up
with.“There are a large number of mining leases wherein the extraction of
mineral below the ground water table has been permitted/is being undertaken.
During the site visit the CEC received a number of representations that the
mining below the ground level is adversely affecting the water availability in
the nearby areas and such mining is damaging the aquifers and consequently the
charging of the ground water is adversely affected. It has also been
represented that such mining is resulting in increased salinity of the ground
water and that the silt deposition from the mining overburden has degraded the
soil fertility in the adjoining agricultural fields. Almost all the dug wells
have dried up”.The logic presented by the state government in the recent past
to explain why water levels in the state’s rivers have depleted is loaded with
irony. Chief minister Manohar Parrikar claims that the ban on mining, has in
fact shrunk water levels to such an extent that he had to release millions of
cubic tons of water from the mining pits to recharge it.“Because they (mining
cos) were unable to pump out the water, the water level is down now,” said
Parrikar last month.Parrikar wasn’t the first to come up with this
googly.Mining magnate Avdhoot Timblo, who is known for his proximity to the
chief minister in recent times, came up with another ‘jewel’ recently when he
said that mining pits actually help conserve water.“Mining activity near the
Selaulim reservoir had resulted in 70 lakes, which store water,” Timblo said,
adding that if the state’s capital Panaji, had to rid itself of its water
shortage woes, it should start a mining pit in its vicinity too.Goa’s open cast
mining requires mine operators to drill the earth in a circular cavernous pit
form. The pit is gradually ringed by a huge, almost volcanic wall of rejects
which are piled around the deepening mining put. The drilling cuts through
several underground water sources, resulting in hundreds of thousands of tons
of ground water accumulating in the same pitsalong with rain water. The water
is ritually pumped out by the mining companies before starting operations post
monsoon. Now Gauns has accused Parrikar of misguiding people by positively
linking mining activity to ground water recharge.“The water which is being
pumped out of the mines is ground water, which is trapped in these pits . If
the mining activity hadn’t descended below the water table, there would be no
need to pump it out at all,” he says.In Goa, all groundwater is covered under
the Goa Ground Water Regulation Act. Let the mines also be brought under this
same notification and Act,” he says, adding that a survey needed to be
conducted to co-relate the level of water in the rivers, to the mining
activity.Chief engineer of the state Water Resources department ST Nadkarni’s
in his comments toFirstpost appears to back Gauns over Parrikar over the issue
of retention of water in mining pits.“In the mines, it is a combination of both
surface water as well as ground water. Surface water accumulates as well as
some groundwater percolates there,” Nadkarni said, adding that his agency was
involved in pumping water out of the mining pits into Khandepar river which
feeds the water purifying unit at Opa in north Goa.But there is a way out of
the water level conundrum as suggested by the CEC, has suggested that mining
below the groundwater level should be is permitted only in exceptional
circumstances and that too with adequate checks and balances.“The mining
operations below the groundwater level should be permitted only after a
detailed study for such mining leases is carried out and it is conclusively
established that mining operations are not likely to adversely affect the
availability of potable water for the local population and will not have any
adverse environmental impact on the water regime,” the CEC has advocated in its
report submitted to the apex court.
