August 25, 2013
PRESS NOTE FROM GOANS FOR DABOLIM ONLY
Goans for Dabolim Only fully supports Governor Wanchoo’s appeal made at the
recent meeting of the Goa State Environmental Protection Council on August
22, for a greater involvement of citizens in protecting the environment of
the state. However, the Governor will surely appreciate that this is
extremely difficult when the government itself keeps imposing large projects
on various Goan villages without conducting an Environment Impact
Assessment, which is a very vital and indispensable tool for protecting the
environment, especially in the case of large projects.
Respect for the environment must emanate from the top. Democratic
governments are elected by citizens as custodians and not ordinary vendors
of natural community assets and resources like land.
It is a canard being propagated by vested interests and their political
collaborators that Goans are anti development. The failure of successive
governments to put public project feasibility reports in the public domain,
has left citizens groping in the dark. The inability of the administration
to control, regulate and ensure that all commercialisation of community
resources like mining for example, are conducted strictly within legal and
sustainable parameters, makes the state itself the biggest culprit in
destroying the environment.
That is why the people of Cuncolim have understandably expressed strong
opposition to the establishment of the NIT in their village. After all, 6
lakhs sq. metres of their precious village land is being acquired, without
even conducting the requisite EIA. Again in Mopa, the lives of villagers
occupying 80 lakhs sq. metres of mainly agricultural land, with lakhs of
cashew and other fruit-bearing trees providing a rich source of revenue and
plenty of water, is being ruthlessly disrupted for land acquisition for an
airport project when Goa already has a fully operational and well equipped
existing airport. All this is being pushed through without any analysis of
its likely impact on the environment, even though the Western Ghats in its
vicinity is a UNESCO heritage site and Goa is a signatory to a protocol for
the protection of the Western Ghats.
As the first citizen of Goa, GFDO appeals to the Governor to lead the
citizens in their mission to protect the state’s environment by ensuring
that the government take people into confidence before imposing new
projects. To emotionally carry the people along with its plans, the
government must treat citizens as stakeholders and make public the
Environment Impact Assessments, plans for garbage management and treatment
and quantum of power and water that will be needed. This should be made
public even before commencement of land acquisition process. The government
also needs to carry the people through the various processes and explain to
them why the projects need such a vast area of land. Because after all, it
is only stakeholders who are motivated by a feeling of involvement.
In fact, as is evident in the past few years, the attitude of successive
governments has been to restrict the involvement of citizens in any of the
projects, despite the administrative inability and irresponsibility that we
have seen in dealing with the repercussions of these projects on the lives
of the people and their environment. Unless these mechanisms are put in
place, it becomes extremely difficult for citizens to be involved in
protecting the environment and under the circumstances, totally unfair that
they be called upon to do so.
Fr. Eremito Rebello
Convenor
